Apple Removes Antivirus KB Article

Apple has removed a KB article recommending usage of antivirus software on its Mac computers, just a short time after it was highlighted in numerous articles. Apple has always touted the relative invulnerability of its OS against malware.

The KB article said:

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.

It was, in fact, strange that they recommended multiple apps at once, as that would cause issues on a Windows box. However, Apple spokesperson Bill Evans said:

"We have removed the KnowledgeBase article because it was old and inaccurate. The Mac is designed with built-in technologies that provide protection against malicious software and security threats right out of the box. However, since no system can be 100 percent immune from every threat, running antivirus software may offer additional protection."

Right, that last statement is key for me. After all, Apple continues to publicly push the Mac OS as invulnerable, but at the same time we see updates that fix various security issues in their products. No software is invulnerable.

Turns out, strangely, this KB article was about 1 1/2 years old, but had been updated on Nov. 21st, for some reason, leading many to believe it was new.

At any rate, I stand by my prior statement: as Mac computers become more and more popular, malware writers will begin --- if they haven't already --- targeting the Mac OS. Malware is now focused on grabbing financial information in one way or another (usernames, passwords, etc. etc.) and thus all users, Mac or no, need to be careful.

Watch the now "valid" Mac vs. PC virus ad again: