Hacker Says Macs Are Safer Than Windows PCs

Thursday, March 26, 2009 | Commentary | Read or Post a Comment

Maybe I have become a little more paranoid about security on my Mac these days. We’ve all heard of people who’ve had their identity stolen, their credit record messed up, and the grief it caused to fix it.

Today there’s yet another software security firm that says Macs are not safe. There’s also a well-known Mac hacker who says Macs are safer than Windows PCs. Who should a Mac user believe?

The security people who track internet malware, Sophos, says Mac users are.... (excerpted).

3 Reader Comments

MacGirl said:

A lot of folks seem a bit confused on this exact issue. By folks I mean users making the switch to Mac. There are those out there that think Apple presents it’s computers as invulnerable to malware and viruses. As someone who works for Apple I can dispute that.
I always inform people that no computer is 100% invincible, but while there is a ton of malware and viruses for PC’s there are almost none for Mac. Of course if you are risky enough to be downloading pirated software and other digital media you kinda get what you deserve. That is the only time I’ve really heard of anyone downloading a Trojan on a Mac.
On the flip side, if someone decides to run Windows either with Boot Camp or with virtualization software, they will be exposing the Mac to the same vulnerabilities as with any other PC. There seems to be a misconception with some that because they are using Windows on a Mac they shouldn’t have problems. In those cases I always suggest antivirus software. If they do get ahold of some bad stuff, the bright side is it will only affect the Windows side of things.

Part of what has made Macs safer is numbers. More users were in the Windows platform, so the bad guys targeted it. With so many making the switch, it could change a bit eventually. I fully believe that Apple will continually keep an eye on such a situation, and have no doubt that each operating system upgrade and update will stay a step ahead of the bad guys.

Paul Howland said:

Your piece is a little selective in it’s quotation. What the hacker actually said was “I’ll leave Linux out of the equation since I know my grandma couldn’t run it. Between Mac and PC, I’d say that Macs are less secure for the reasons we’ve discussed here (lack of anti-exploitation technologies) but are more safe because there simply isn’t much malware out there.” So, it’s back to the security-through-obscurity argument which still holds. Bear in mind that most malware these days is developed to generate ad income rather than for the fun of it - and so it is obvious that it still makes far more financial sense to target Windows than MacOS. This will eventually change if MacOS can sustain a worldwide usage consistently in double figures.

Mac Wizard said:

I’ve used Macs, Windows, and Linux for years, and have managed serves and computer labs. There is no question: Macs (and Linux) are far safer than Windows. Macs (and Linux) are designed from the ground up to be multiuser machines, therefore the protection is built in. Windows is designed to run legacy code from the days of single user, nonnetworked machines, so insecurity is built in.

There is also no question that social engineering puts those who don’t practice ‘safe computing’ at risk no matter what system they use.

The bottom line is that, assuming normal precautions with downloading and running unknown programs, Macs are far safer than Windows. Period.

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