Do You Need Antivirus?

Should you take steps to protect your computer from malware, or are Macs still inherently safe?

- Alex Blake

Last year something happened that sent tech writers reeling the world over. No, Steve Jobs hadn’t returned from the dead; people had found the first Mac ransomware. Every Mac user is familiar with the adage that ‘Macs don’t get malware’, but is that still true? Do you need anti-malware apps for your Mac?

Naturally immune

Traditionally, there have always been two main reasons why Mac antivirus software has been seen as superfluous: macOS’ low market share, and its UNIX base.

Windows enjoys an operating system market share of almost 90%. That makes it a highly attractive target to malware authors: the larger the market share, the greater the chance you’ll find someone to exploit. And unlike Windows (based on MS-DOS), Macs are UNIX-based, which makes them much more complicated to hack. For instance, an app’s executable code and its data are stored in separate, predictable folders on a Mac. On Windows, installed programs could have files placed in a wide variety of different places, so uninstalling every lingering piece of code can be tricky – and potentially dangerous if that app can cause harm to your computer.