A long rant for someone who doesn’t post that often,
At one point in time it was safer to use a Mac on the internet, and that was pre Ipod age when the Mac user base was extremely small compared to windows, and the type of virus/malware/spy ware was in its infancy and aimed at just creating a nuisance/or to get the creator of the "bug" known. The best way to do this was to code the "bug" on the most common system (happened to be windows) so it could spread (that would not happen if it was on a Mac, as they user base was so small).
When Steve Jobs took over apple and re-imaged the company into what it is now, the user base has taken off. Still not near the windows market, but steadily increasing.
The thing with virus ect they are
“unlikely to delete your hard disk, corrupt your spreadsheet, or display a message. Such cyber-vandalism has given way to more lucrative exploits. Today’s virus might encrypt all your files and demand a ransom. Or a hacker might blackmail a large company by threatening to launch a “denial-of-service” attack, which prevents customers from accessing their website
A virus might silently install a keystroke logger, which waits until the victim visits a banking website and then records the user’s account details and password, and forwards them to a hacker via the Internet. The hacker is an identity thief – using these details to clone credit cards or plunder bank accounts. The victim isn’t even aware that the computer has been infected. Once the virus has done its job, it may delete itself altogether to avoid detection.
Another trend is for malware to take over your computer, turning it into a remote-controlled “zombie,” and use it without your knowledge to relay millions of profit-making spam messages or launch other malware attacks on unsuspecting computer users” Sophos website
Nothing like the first know virus which basically displayed a poem on the screen every 50th time the computer was started.
So now its all about money, the fact that Macs are getting more common means that more virus/malware/ect is been written to run on Macs and spreading. The hackers know that a lot of people “think” they are safer when using a Mac and don’t need AV, and they are more than happy to keep you thinking that way too(the longer your system is unprotected the better for them).
In fact the past 2-3 years there has been many a month where there has been more virus/malware/ect found on Macs than on Windows, just apple don’t publish that information, it’s down to security firms. These “bugs” can now run on both systems too, some don’t even need to run on your computer, (that’s since the rise of social networking sites). It’s getting to the point that it doesn’t matter what system you use.
So please do not think that just because you have a Mac it’s safer than a PC, get some AV as soon as possible. That goes to PC users as well (And yes common sense is a good antivirus, but still not 100%)
PS I use Windows, Macs and may distros of Linux they all have the pros and cons
