Ever wonder why people say Apple computers or devices do not need Anti – Virus protection such as AVG, Trend Micro, or McAfee? This is because there is a myth that Apple has that much better security than PC does. While this does hold true to some form, Apple does have integrated virus protection, this is not always enough. The real reason people who own Apple products don’t see Virus’ and malware as much is this. Put your self in the shoes of a hacker for a moment. If I see that as of today’s date 87.03% of computers are using a windows based operating system. And only 7.05% of users have a OS X operating system. Which one am I going to develop the best and most virus’ and malware for? This answer should seem quite simple. I am by far going to get a potential gain out of the 87% than a very very small 7%. Hackers are going for big pay offs and targeting dumber people, how many old people do you know that own a Mac Book pro? They don’t, these are costly machines that just aren’t user friendly for an older generation. As Apple becomes bigger and bigger I think we will see a lot more Virus’ and Malware being created for your OS X  systems.

I know W.A.C.D. gets Mac users in with virus issues probably more than people think. They are also very hard to clean up when a mac does have a virus. I will say that PC’s do have way more problems with this issue but I think that what I talked about above should easily explain itself. So when Apple released today that over in China some 350k devices had been hacked or potentially hacked by what they called the Apple Malware WireLurker this didn’t surprise me at all.

Remember the easiest way to avoid a possible virus:

• Do not download or click Email that you do not know the sender.
• When visiting websites from emails make sure you requested that information to be sent and bare in mind banks are not going to ask for personal information over an email.
• When visiting sites make sure they are ones that you know about ahead of time.
• Search sites in Google first to see if they are legit.
• If the sites promise is too good to be true, then guess what it probably is!
• When downloading a program even Java or Adobe, make sure you read the fine print. As most of the time it is asking if you want to allow this toolbar to be downloaded and often you can decline and still download the program.
• Use common sense