Why don’t macs get viruses? (and Windows computers do!)
The answer you’re most likely to get from most uneducated drones when asking this question goes something like this:
There are significantly fewer Macs than Windows machines, so hackers don’t bother making viruses for them. Macs are just as insecure as Windows, they just don’t get targetted.
This is of course, incorrect.
Here’s the real reason (don’t worry, I’ll elaborate):
| Mac: | Windows: |
You will see something like this when updating a typical Mac program. |
You will see something like this when updating a typical Windows program. |
Woah. Wait. Both are updating a program. What’s the difference?
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In short, every time you install or update a Windows program, you’re forced to give it full access to your computer. Every. Single. Time. Firefox needs an update? Grant full access. Java needs an update? Grant full access. Some other random program needs to update? Grant full… you get the idea.
Now you might be thinking, “I have to grant every program full access to my computer for it to update itself? That seems silly”. And you’d be right. There’s no reason that every random program should be given full access to your machine. That would be like a bank giving keys to the vault to every customer that walked in.
If Microsoft ran a bank, the vault would be empty. Read more…
