Tech Talk

The facts are: Mac malware exists; it’s rarer than Windows malware; and (this one’s a bit controversial) you shouldn’t bother installing anti-virus software on your Mac.

It’s still true, mind you, but that doesn’t seem to make any difference to the received wisdom. Anti-virus researchers insist you absolutely do need anti-virus software, whatever your OS, and the computer press goes along with this. Because it’s better to be safe than sorry, right? And nobody wants angry emails from people whose house burned down after we told them they didn’t need a smoke alarm.

Mac malware does exist, but you shouldn’t bother installing anti-virus software on your Mac

So I’m not going to tell you what to do. I’m just going to tell you what I do. I don’t have third-party anti-virus software on my Macs – just the measures that are built into Mavericks. I download apps from the App Store, but also directly from developer sites. If it’s something I haven’t heard of before, I’ll Google the name and see what people are saying about it first. I ignore all error messages, warnings, invitations and entreaties that appear in my browser window. I keep OS X updated. That’s it. So far I haven’t had any problems with malware, but if one day I do, then I’ll deal with it, just like every other computer problem. Malware isn’t a house fire. It’s just another potential technical support issue and one of the rarest at that.