A big reason people consider moving to a Mac is the constant threat of viruses on a PC. So, “Is a Mac really safe from viruses?”

This is what Apple says

“At the end of 2005, there were 114,000 known PC viruses. In March 2006 alone, 850 new threats against Windows were detected. Zero for Mac. While no Internet-connected computer will ever be 100% immune to attacks, Mac OS X has helped the Mac maintain its clean state of health with a superior UNIX foundation and security features that go beyond the norm for PCs. When you get a Mac, just your enthusiasm is contagious.”

I’m not sure yet? Just do a quick search under Virus on both Apple Y Microsoft.

I always like to use analogies when trying to describe concepts, they are easier to understand. My PC-Mac virus comparison analogy goes like this:

• The Virus will be represented by a person.
• The Computing platform will be represented by Cities, in this case we will use Seattle for PC and Vancouver for Mac.
• All viruses need instructions to do their dirty work, in this case we will use a city road map to represent these instructions.

So if you are the PC virus armed with its seattle roadmap damaging set of instructions and you somehow find yourself in Vancouver, then you are truly lost with no way of finding or being able to inflict any damage, for the simple reason it doesn’t. Do you know where or how to do the damage?

Also, even if you had the right roadmap for Vancouver, you’d run into a large security force you didn’t expect, since Mac OS X is based on Unix, Unix is ​​known for its discreet but secure security measures.

A good example of a typical virus would be a virus disguised in an email or downloaded from a website that you may think is a harmless picture or photo. On a PC you can unknowingly click on it and you know the rest… On a Mac the first level of defense would be Safari (Apple’s web browser), by default Safari warns you about disguised images/photos and even if you click on it, you will be prompted to enter a “Username” and “Password”. This is because a virus will need administrator authentication to gain access to the areas where it can do the most damage.

So “is your Mac really safe from viruses?” Macs are one of the most secure systems available and I’ll back that up by saying I don’t use virus software, I’ve never had a virus on any Mac, and I’ve been using Macs for over 10 years. What I do recommend is that you use some kind of backup system, by using a backup system you not only protect yourself from viruses, but also: human error, hard drive failure, theft, water or fire damage and a whole variety of possible ways you can lose your very important computer data.

Here is an article that covers why you need to backup your computer, PC or Mac!

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