Antivirus Software Snow Leopard Mac OS X And

And other content in iPhones Safari is another potential issue.

This article, the fifth in a series looking closer at some of Snow Leopards well-known but often misrepresented or misunderstood features, examines what this really means for Mac users and their relative security.

The previous release of Leopard also already flags Internet downloads with metadata that alerts users that what they are opening was downloaded from the web, citing where and when.

Antivirus Software Snow Leopard Mac OS X And

However, there is no real malware problem on the Mac, in part because its hard to write viral code that infects Mac OS X and very easy for Apple to roll out a patch that closes any discovered holes.

While Microsoft has invested heavily in securing Windows Vista7, adoption of modern versions of Windows is very low.

This has severely diluted the billions Microsoft has invested over the past decade to fix Windows show stopper security problems.

W3Schools reports the combined use of Vista7 reaching just 21 in August 2009 among its web stats of ten million visiting developers.

In 2005, it even entered talks to buy the notorious Claria, which resulted in Microsofts Windows AntiSpyware conveniently reclassifying that companys Gator and other malware titles as non-threatening and suggested that users ignore the problem.

If the iPhone can avoid a security plague while capturing 10 to 25 of the smartphone hardware market (and a majority portion of smartphone software activity), it appears Apples Mac platform should also have room to safely double several times.

This issue, of trojan user trickery, has no direct connection with the separate issue of software flaws and vulnerabilities that can result in direct exploits from outside attackers.

The only examples of Mac malware ever cited are non-viral, malicious software installers that must trick users into authorizing their installation.

Thats what the iPhone does; users cant install unapproved software without first defeating the iPhones security system via jailbreaking.

Macs are not suffering from real-world problems (as Windows does) and the iPhone is secured from the wide-open potential for malicious assault ( as Android is ).

With Snow Leopard, Apple has simply made the business case for building new Mac malware that much less attractive to thugs.

The threat of vulnerabilities in antivirus software is particularly dangerous because antivirus typically requires greater access privileges to do its job than most user software does.

On the Mac however, installing antivirus software has little upside and can instead expose its own vulnerabilities, demand performance-sapping overhead, introduce other bugs or incompatibilities into the system and simply get in the way.

There are flaws in the antivirus engines and sometimes even new vulnerabilities that are exposed when updates are downloaded.

Last year, a study of antivirus vulnerabilities unearthed hundreds and called into question how antivirus vendors report and patch their own softwares flaws.

The claim that users should just install something to feel safe is simply wrong.

There are no real malware risks that are currently addressed on the Mac by third party antivirus tools apart from scanning for Windows or Office viruses.

Apple is also advancing Snow Leopard Server, and will also be using the advances delivered in Snow Leopard to improve the iPhone and Apple TV, as future articles will examine.

It is simply a side-effect that this eliminates the ability to download infected apps.

Antivirus Software For Mac Snow Leopard