Apple and Anti-Virus
The Internet is all atwitter about a recently posted Apple Knowledge Base article that recommends anti-virus software. This is a shift, according to some, from the ideology that Macs are magical fortresses of awesomeness that no malicious code could ever penetrate.
TUAW sums up the problem with this logic:
Let’s be fair: Apple’s prose isn’t helping matters, because while we all know that “widespread use of multiple antivirus utilities” doesn’t mean you should be installing multiple AV tools on your one, single Mac — the point is that the ecosystem should have variation, making it harder for malware writers to attack the entire population with one well-crafted vulnerability — that fine distinction appears to have been lost on some of those who encountered this “new” KB article.
This, of course, brings us to point #2: a careful reading (or really, any reading at all) of the KB item shows the “Old article: 4454″ legend at the top right. Yes, Apple does sometimes update KB articles, and in this case the same exact “multiple utilities” copy has been on the support site for a while — the article was originally published in June of 2007, and was updated simply to reflect current versioning on the Intego and Symantec AV products.
Not only is the article not new, but it wouldn’t matter if it was. OS X is a prime target for virus writers, yet none exist in the wild. That said, malware exists in other forms: spyware, trojans, keyloggers, et al. Each of which requires user interaction, but still poses a genuine threat. It would be irresponsible — and, dare I say, arrogant — of Apple not to recommend that users protect their machines.