News: Snow Leopard to Include Anti-Malware Utility

Apple has long used the security of its software as a selling point. While Windows machines are often plagued with viruses, spyware, malware, any number of bad things, Apple users generally go about their days with little or no security protection, because little to none is ever needed. However, starting with Snow Leopard, the company is apparently packaging anti-malware tools into its operating system. This has two effects: firstly, it makes the system more secure, but secondly, it also gives the system the appearance of being less secure. Apple has not yet returned requests to comment on the feature, which is getting analysts and bloggers talking.

For many years now, the Get A Mac ad campaign, other campaigns, and general experience have led the typical Mac consumer to think that their computer is unreachable by anything bad, and that, especially compared to Windows, there are no real threats and using a Mac is safe and secure as ever. By including a program that appears—at least from the screen shot above—to scan downloads for potential security risks, Apple is admitting that there are in fact viruses that can infect Macs, and that its users are not as safe as they might think, at least not currently.

However, by creating this app, they are also, of course, making their computers safer. The theory is, many Mac enthusiasts think, that this is less to address a current, ongoing problem of Mac malware, and rather to keep people’s systems safe for the future. It is still certainly true that there are many fewer viruses and so on made for Macs than there are for PCs, most likely because the market share remains small and it’s just not worth it for the hackers. So, the inclusion of this feature should still be a selling point for the Snow Leopard upgrade which comes out this Friday.

Apple has yet to respond to comments on this feature, which seems to be working against the company. If they discussed the utility, its limitations and features, they might well get people more excited about Snow Leopard, happy to be safe, and so on. If not, as they are doing, it seems as if they are trying to pretend that viruses just don’t exist, which in the end will hurt the company.

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