MacWorld: Mac Security Essentials - MacWorld: Mac Security

See what software you really need to keep your data - and your Mac - safe

Oct 8, 2008

Are Macs really more secure than PCs? The answer is complicated.

Technically, Macs are not inherently more secure than Windows PCs - and by some measures, they are definitely less so. Over the past five years, Microsoft has made huge security improvements to Windows, and Apple now lags behind Microsoft in implementing library randomization, data execution protection, and other advanced security features.

But Apple continuously releases OS X security updates, fixing numerous vulnerabilities that could allow someone to take over your Mac for shady purposes.

And Windows faces a constant onslaught of attacks that dwarfs anything OS X experiences. That's because the days when malicious hackers wrote viruses and took down Web sites just for fun are long past. Now they do it for money. Since the vast majority of computers run Windows, focusing efforts on that platform is just a more profitable use of their time. In addition, there are fewer nefarious tools for Macs, and fewer attackers with OS X programming experience. So there are fewer attacks on Macs.

Could that change? Absolutely. Most security experts agree that as the Mac's popularity and market share increase, so will the risks.

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