Apple Scales Back Marketing Language on OS X Security Following Flashback

The inevitable price of increasing success.

Clever maneuver. They had to adjust.

Lay off the porn and you'll be alright!

Edit: Also lay off the face space, my book and such

I understand that they're just trying to protect themselves but, a Mac really doesn't get PC viruses. I think there was nothing wrong or incorrect in the original text.

I mean, do you consider a trojan to be a virus? I certainly don't.

Times change. Big change in tune from
Apple, did not expect this .

Now we should see hundreds of posts defining what a virus is and what malware is.

MacFetish said:

The inevitable price of increasing success.

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No doubt. Also realizing that they can't spin this BS any longer the way they used to. OS X was safer ONLY because it hasn't been targeted... I think we are at the point where every OS X user should use some sort of malware protection.

deannnnn said:

I understand that they're just trying to protect themselves but, a Mac really doesn't get PC viruses. I think there was nothing wrong or incorrect in the original text.

I mean, do you consider a trojan to be a virus? I certainly don't.

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Do you mean to say that it gets Mac viruses? Is that really a good selling point?

nikhsub1 said:

I think we are at the point where every OS X user should use some sort of malware protection.

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Common sense does me fine, thanks.

nikhsub1 said:

No doubt. Also realizing that they can't spin this BS any longer the way they used to. OS X was safer ONLY because it hasn't been targeted... I think we are at the point where every OS X user should use some sort of malware protection.

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Ah, the good old Marketshare Myth™. Too bad it doesn't hold up to the simplest of logic. After all, can you tell me why OS 8-9, with a fraction of the marketshare, had orders of magnitude more malware (including actual viruses and worms)? After all, it should have been even more protected because there were fewer of them and would have been even less targeted.

jW

Why change? It never did get PC viruses, and still doesn't. Microsoft could easily add "It doesn't get Mac Malware" to their Windows page and still be correct.

deannnnn said:

I understand that they're just trying to protect themselves but, a Mac really doesn't get PC viruses. I think there was nothing wrong or incorrect in the original text.

I mean, do you consider a trojan to be a virus? I certainly don't.

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Correct, but does it really matter? If a user's Mac is infected with malware, does it matter much what the initial attack vector was; virus, trojan or worm?

It's probably no harm for Apple to tone down the language a bit, from 'Don't worry, you're safe' to 'You're safer on a Mac'. Users still need to exercise caution.

There are a hell of a lot of developers out there now with Cocoa programming skills - iOS has made it a lucrative business, not just the preserve of Mac fans. I think we're likely to see more and more attacks, with Apple's higher profile and market-share.

About time; increased market share or not there's always been the possibility of malware getting onto a machine, the fact that it's taken Apple this long to really do anything to properly stop it is shameful really.

Touting "we've probably not got any viable viruses yet" was never sound marketing, as I don't think I know anyone that would seriously switch OS (and hardware) just to escape from Windows viruses. The real important points have always been simplicity and usability, which is what they should be advertising most, and kind of do, adding "no viruses we promise" has only ever been asking for trouble.

deannnnn said:

I understand that they're just trying to protect themselves but, a Mac really doesn't get PC viruses. I think there was nothing wrong or incorrect in the original text.

I mean, do you consider a trojan to be a virus? I certainly don't.

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A lot of people (especially those outside of these forums) don't understand that there's a difference.

***Bedazzled***

Someone pulled out their old Bedazzler for the BEFORE and AFTER font.

nikhsub1 said:

No doubt. Also realizing that they can't spin this BS any longer the way they used to. OS X was safer ONLY because it hasn't been targeted... I think we are at the point where every OS X user should use some sort of malware protection.

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If someone looks hard enough, they will find a hole in any OS (often through a third party program), but don't kid yourself, OS X is and has been far safer than XP or Mac OS 9, and it wasn't due to obscurity. User Account Control in Vista and 7 made Windows much more secure than it used to be.

Mal said:

Ah, the good old Marketshare Myth™. Too bad it doesn't hold up to the simplest of logic. After all, can you tell me why OS 8-9, with a fraction of the marketshare, had orders of magnitude more malware (including actual viruses and worms)? After all, it should have been even more protected because there were fewer of them and would have been even less targeted.

jW

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Before widespread internet use, people were sharing floppies a lot more; thus it's much easier for viruses to propagate. Now, most people downloading app directly from vendor's site, the Mac App Store, or DVD installs (read-only, thus safer).

lilo777 said:

Do you mean to say that it gets Mac viruses? Is that really a good selling point?

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Never heard of a "Mac virus" - what is that? Any programmer can program something harmful to your computer - no matter what OS. If the user installs it, it can cause damage. Heck, I can install Windows on a Mac and cut most Mac users' productivity in half. Does that make Windows a virus? Maybe that is your "mac virus" then...

deannnnn said:

I mean, do you consider a trojan to be a virus? I certainly don't.

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To technical people, no. But the world is made up of less-than-technical people, and their perception is that if the computer has been "taken over" or invaded, it matters not what you call it.

Before I retired, doing sysadmin work, my boss used to maintain that if the web server is inaccessible, then it is "down". It didn't matter the actual technical reason (router hung, name server not resolving, someone unplugged a switch, or even in fact the web server was not serving), if the end user could not access it, it was "down". That is how most people perceive it.

PR failing

There's always a virus for any kind of software. Unless it's build by aliens, humans will always try to break things apart and get in.

haravikk said:

About time; increased market share or not there's always been the possibility of malware getting onto a machine, the fact that it's taken Apple this long to really do anything to properly stop it is shameful really.

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Hmmm. And what was the Microsoft Virus Scanner again? I think AV.exe in 3.11 - and that's about it (PS: That AV.exe was never updated - ever. Just had a virus list from the get-go it could detect...). Please don't sell me the Malware Detector as antivirus program.

People do twist themselves into logical knots trying to convince themselves that the actual, real world, malware situation is as bad on Mac as it is on PCs. (Or “just about to be as bad, any day now, for reals, Simon Says!”)

At the end of the day, users are SO MUCH safer on a Mac that it’s not even close, and any shift simply cannot overwhelm that advantage any time soon—not even if Apple “stands still” with OS X development. Argue the definitions (and certainly Flashback was nasty in its own way, whatever you call it—more than “just a trojan”). But the reality remains. And what Apple has already done with Mountain Lion for security is just plain awesome on top of that. (Yes, MS has done a lot too finally, and in certain ways has done more and better. My Windows friends are still constantly infested and my Mac friends are not—bearing out the same stats we see in the world.)

It’s like PCs are box of cobras and and Macs are box of turtles, and you’re deciding which one to put your hand into. And the PC people say “both turtles and snakes can theoretically give you salmonella—so choose the cobras for long life and health!”

EDIT: And even if smaller market size (obscurity) WERE the only reason for Mac’s safety (clearly untrue) that would still be a good thing, and Macs won’t surpass PC installed base for many years if ever. (But look at iOS’s lack of malware... and there are more of those than Macs.... It would seem that market share is not the only factor here.) Apple products aren’t perfect, merely the best by far and improving fast.

whooleytoo said:

Before widespread internet use, people were sharing floppies a lot more; thus it's much easier for viruses to propagate. Now, most people downloading app directly from vendor's site, the Mac App Store, or DVD installs (read-only, thus safer).

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Yes, because it's so much easier for a virus to spread on a floppy disk than over the internet. History obviously proves you right.

/sarcasm

Seriously? Do half a moment's research and you'll find that the internet was the catalyst for a huge surge in the number of virus available for Windows. Also, internet usage was certainly widespread before OS X was released, and many of the OS 9 viruses and other types of malware did propagate via email or websites.

jW

deannnnn said:

I understand that they're just trying to protect themselves but, a Mac really doesn't get PC viruses. I think there was nothing wrong or incorrect in the original text.

I mean, do you consider a trojan to be a virus? I certainly don't.

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The line of trojan and virus is pretty blurry these days and the general public thinks any program that is malicious in nature is a virus when, in the strict sense, it may not be.

I agree that the original text isnt misleading at all because PC viruses do require a PC to run.