Why does a Mac not get infected with a Virus? and can spyware/adware affect a Mac?

Question

sorry addition to the above.. Can a Mac b Hacked??

Answer 1

yes it can. the reason spammers and hackers target pc's is because they are so much more popular

Answer 2

Hi Dol, Some day the Mac will be infected with a virus, but it hasn't for the past six years that I've been using Mac OS X. While Vista got computer viruses before it was even officially released. To install any software on a Mac, the user needs to first type in his administrative password. Software doesn't auto-install like it can with Windows. That's the main reason that the Mac hasn't been infected with a virus. True, there have been some "proof-of-concept" viruses developed by anti-virus software companies just to prove that it can happen. However, in most cases, you still had to type in your administrative password. Yeah, that won't work. None of these viruses have been released to the Mac community. So I say, still no viruses. Plus, we love our Macintosh developers and happily pay them what ever they ask for good applications. A Macintosh developer would never create such an abomination to his favorite computer. While Windows developers learn how to create simple script viruses their first year of programming class. --Rick

Answer 3

Heres a google about Mac viruses;
http://www.google.co.uk/search?hl=en&q=Mac+viruses&btnG=Google+Search&meta=

Software written to run on Windows wont work on a Mac; and a virus or trojan is just software. So fingers crossed most of the crud on the net wont affect them.
When the browser window is open, the port is open and that allows access to the machine. The browser could be broken into I guess, but a Mac is just a computer, and a computer with open ports can be hacked.

Answer 4

Macs don't get infected as much because of a few things:
There are less of them
They're more secure than Windows
They have completely different coding than Windows
The company has a better reputation and is therefore less scorned / hated by hackers.

Yes, there are Mac viruses, but they're really rare.

There are even fewer Linux viruses, and that's what I'm running (Ubuntu - it's a really friendly and easy to use Linux).

Answer 5

OS X is currently immune to viruses written in VBA to target Outlook (and/or Outlook + Office) on Windows, which is about 90% of them. Remote login, ftpd, telnetd and httpd are disabled by default, which shuts out most UNIX worms coming from the net. It's possible to write a virus to target OS X, but it would probably have to specifically target OS X and for the effort that the attacker has to go through why bother when 95% of the World runs Windows Computers that are far easier targets that can be owned or comprimised alot faster in 5-20 minutes.

Answer 6

Macs can get infected with viruses. Its just there are not so many out there as for Microsoft operating systems. My neighbour, who is an IT technician, says its partly because Mac OSs are UNIX based and therefore harder to hack. I don't know how true that is not being a techie. Mac users are lucky in that malevolent hackers seem to reserve their ire for Microsoft products and not Apple.

Answer 7

Most computer users are on windows, so to infect the maximum ammount of computers it makes sense for the virus writers to make their viruses for windows.

I'm sure you can still hack a mac and get it infected however.

Answer 8

Simply because there are fewer Macs on the net than there are PCs! People who write malware are out to attack as many systems as they can! The simple fact that Macs are less susceptible to attack is solely because they only make up five percent of the systems on the net! Yes a Mac can be attacked! If the Apple computer market were to ever get to any substantial part of the computer market, it wouldnt be long and it would be just as infested!
P.S. There is absolutely NOTHING awsome about a Mac! The computer buying public proves this!

Answer 9

Anything can be hacked.

Macs fare better because they are not as common/dominant, and hackers don't hate Apple like they hate Microsoft. Viruses aren't written for them really. They are written for the majority to do th most damage (why? who knows) Since most creative types, artists etc... use Macs, I guess they don't want to harm them, just the main business types.

Answer 10

As far as I know, Macs are more graphics oriented for producing commercial art. I don't even know how true that is anymore except if you interacting with artists it's PC. Ignore the pun.

Answer 11

Macs are just awesome! You should get one. I've had a Mac forever and I tell ya, it's THE best!