After years of deceiving its clients, Apple has finally admitted that its products can get viruses, something most of us have known all along. The Mac maker changed the wording on its “Why you’ll love a Mac” page from stating “It doesn’t get PC viruses” to “It’s built to be safe”. The same page also used to state “Safeguard your data. By doing nothing” to just “Safety. Built In.” Comparative screenshots can be seen here.
I actually sent a complaint to the ASA about a year ago regarding an ad in a Vodacom magazine which indicated the faulty “free from viruses” message. The changes were duly made in the next edition of the ad.
The Mac-based Flashback virus recently infected upwards of 650000 Mac’s earlier this year which pretty much puts paid to Apple’s “It doesn’t get PC viruses” message. This is not the first malware to infect Macs and it certainly won’t be the last so Mac users can expect an increase in security issues over the next few years. It’s interesting to note that Apple is now the security equivalent of Microsoft 10 years ago. While viruses are still all-pervading on Windows PCs, Microsoft has done a lot of work in terms of their security features and systems to combat this issue.
So let’s go Apple – time to get secure!