TidBITS: Apple Confirms Antivirus Software Is (Usually) Unnecessary

03 Dec 2008
by Rich Mogull

On 21-Nov-08, a short support article appeared on Apple's Web site, likely placed there by someone with no idea of the chain of events he or she was about to initiate. The article summary was, "Learn about antivirus utilities available for the Mac OS." The bombshell statement in the article? "Apple encourages the widespread use of multiple antivirus utilities so that virus programmers have more than one application to circumvent, thus making the whole virus writing process more difficult." The article went on to list three of the major antivirus programs for the Mac.

At first, no one really noticed. Then, on 01-Dec-08, the note gained the attention of Brian Krebs at the Washington Post, who wondered if this statement signified a notable shift in Apple policy.

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