Without providing any statistical proof, Trusted Reviews repeated the old trope that “malware infections are far less common on macOS than for Windows.” But while admitting that this was probably because the macOS is less widely used, it insisted that it was because macOS had robust built-in security and rigorous protection against unsigned apps.
“The historic list of notable macOS malware makes for an extremely short Wikipedia entry. However, macOS malware discoveries in 2021 included a number of cross-platform viruses written in languages such as Go, Python, and Kotlin,” the article says.
The article admits that security researchers have found methods of evading Apple’s Gatekeeper, which checks to ensure that apps have been scanned and notarised by Apple as malware-free before allowing them to be installed.
It says it is true that hackers have found no problem attacking journalists, human rights activists and persecuted minority groups who use Apple software.
However, the article said that Apple fanboys can be rest assured that they are far less likely to encounter one than your average Windows user. And anyone who obeys Apple and only buys software from its glorious App store and is not a journalist or human rights activist “you’re not very likely to encounter one.”
So what numbers does Trusted Reviews use to justify this call to conform and convert to the Apple way of life? Initially, it goes for the old security by obscurity argument which has been used by Apple fanboys for decades to claim the OS was more secure.
“With [unnamed] estimates putting macOS at around six per cent of the global operating system market share, compared to 42 per cent for Android and 32 per cent for Windows, it’s obvious that macOS is a less desirable target for general-purpose malware than Windows and Android.”
Since no one serious uses the OS, virus writers can’t be bothered writing malware for it. This is damned with faint praise. Just because no one sensible uses an OS does not make it inherently more secure. It still might be a shitty bit of code, it just means that virius writers have better things to do than hack someone to discover their Coldplay and U2 collection.
Then the Trusted Review gets a bit silly. Claiming that the fact that Microsoft makes the Security Centre on Windows easy to find, this is somehow a security flaw.
“Apple’s malware defenses are almost invisible, and lack features such as on-demand scanning and visible on-off switches,” the review enthuses.
Er no. This makes it difficult to repair something when it goes wrong. As yourself, is a car design that makes it impossible to get to engine better than one which allows you to top up the water and the oil? A hacker, or any basic level programmer can gain access to Apple’s malware defences. Hiding them from the user just makes it inconvenient.
The article makes this rather strange claim “It’s so hard to disable that malware researchers have to go to great lengths to even test virus samples on macOS.” These would be the test samples that don’t exist because virus writers can’t be bothered writing them. Can Trusted Reviews find a competent malware researcher who can’t get virus samples to run on macOS? Maybe it should have quoted at least one.
The rest of the article is a cut and paste of how Apple wants its security to be seen. There are no tests, no proof, just a fundamental almost religious belief that what Apple does works. For example, it says look how wonderful Gatekeeper is… it does not matter that it is inconvenient for developers who have to pay for it, it is an excellent way to preventing “users don’t accidentally install anything that might damage their system.”
This contradicts the first part of the article, where the writer admits that security experts and virus writers have navigated their way around Gatekeeper.
Then to cap off the article’s irony, it finishes with the statement. “Major players in commercial macOS antivirus for home users include Kaspersky, Eset, MacPaw, MalwareBytes, BitDefender, ClamAV and Trend Micro, among others. The AV-TEST lab puts them through their paces on a regular basis. See my guide to understanding antivirus test results to help you understand how they perform….
ClamAV, Avira, Avast, BitDefender, Trend Micro and Kapersky all have free macOS antivirus products available. Some of these don’t provide real-time protect, but the option of an on-demand scan is always reassuring.” So, if you are so self confident in Apple’s AV protection systems, why would you need to spend money on third party security software? If the system is safe then surely the number of viruses you get should be non-existent and those that do have a way around Apple’s systems should be easily handled by its own security software.
The fact is that Apple iOS is no more secure than any piece of software and it is time that tech reporters stop shilling Apple's reality distortion field. To be fair Apple never makes these claims anymore.
