Macs & viruses

It's a widely known fact that Mac OS X is not plagued by computer viruses, worms, Trojans or other forms of malware. As an avid Mac user I enjoy the freedom of not having to deal with the constant threat of malicious software infections. However this might just prove to be the Achilles heel of Mac OS X. This subject has always fascinated me and I decided to do some investigation.

During the past 2 years so-called "proof-of-concept" pieces of malicious Mac OS X code have surfaced on the Internet. None of them are currently of any threat to Mac users as they are not circulating on the Internet and they can't cause any real damage to the system. But this proves that Mac OS X is vulnerable just like any other system and Mac users could one day face a real virus threat.

But why haven't we seen one yet? Mac OS X has been out for over 5 years and the threat has not materialized. I did some research on this subject and wrote a small essay of my findings for our SPI course about Macs and viruses/malware. You can read the PDF version of the essay here. I should mention that the referencing style is not traditionally academic but in the form of hyperlinks. I believe that this is a more comfortable form of referencing for on-line readers.

But for those of you too busy or not motivated enough to go through the entire paper I will do a short recap:

1) There are currently no known viruses or other forms of malware in the "wild" that could infect the average Mac user (a worm called Leap.A is considered the only exception by some).

2) There are a few "proof-of-concepts" worms, trojans and malware but their total number does not exceed 10.

3) Several anti-virus software companies have recently (within the last 1-2 years) issued warnings that a "real" Mac OS X virus could arrive soon and Mac users should beware.

4) There are 3 main reasons for the lack of viruses on the Mac platform:

• Small market share (ca. 2.5% of global personal computer market)
• Mac OS X UNIX based architecture makes it difficult to write malicious code
• "Zero-tolerance" of malware within the Mac community

Ok, that sums up my reasearch in a nutshell. I personally believe that the small market share numbers will keep viruses away from the platform. As long as Apple remains the sole manufacturer of Macs the malware threat similar to the Windows platform will remain small on the Mac platform. However all Mac users should be informed of the possible risks and remain skeptical of all content accessed on-line.

Anyone who disagrees or would like to express their own view regarding this subject is welcome to post their comments.