Macs cannot get viruses
Apple Mac computers can be infected with malware, and security researchers have documented a growing volume of Mac-targeting malware over the past decade, even though historically lower market share made Macs a less frequent target compared to Windows, a gap that has narrowed considerably.
What we know
The belief that Macs cannot get viruses or malware traces back to a period, roughly the 1990s through the mid-2000s, when Windows held an overwhelming majority of the personal computer market, giving malware authors far greater financial and practical incentive to target Windows systems, since a piece of malware written for Windows could reach a vastly larger pool of potential victims than the same effort spent targeting the smaller Mac user base. This created a real, if indirect, security advantage for Mac users during that period, one rooted in market economics rather than any fundamental technical immunity in macOS itself.
Apple's own marketing during the 2000s, including advertising that explicitly stated Macs don't get PC viruses, reinforced this perception, though the claim was narrowly true in a technical sense, since malware written specifically for the Windows operating system's code and file structure generally cannot run on macOS, which has a different underlying architecture. This technical accuracy about cross-platform incompatibility, however, was widely misunderstood by the public as a broader claim that Macs are immune to malware in general, which has never been accurate.
Security researchers have documented a substantial and growing body of malware specifically targeting macOS over the past decade, as Apple's market share and, more importantly, the value of data stored on Mac devices for both individual and enterprise users, grew enough to make Mac-targeting malware development worthwhile for criminal groups. Malwarebytes' annual State of Malware reports have documented year-over-year increases in Mac-specific malware detections through the 2010s and 2020s, and in some years found that the volume of threats detected per Mac device exceeded the volume detected per Windows device, though this was influenced partly by differences in how adware and potentially unwanted programs are categorized across platforms.
Notable Mac-specific malware families documented by security researchers include Silver Sparrow, discovered in 2021 and analyzed by Red Canary and other security firms, which infected tens of thousands of Mac devices through a mechanism that puzzled researchers because the malware's ultimate payload was never activated during their observation period, and various strains of Mac-targeting ransomware, spyware, and adware documented by firms including Kaspersky and CrowdStrike.
Apple has built increasingly robust security features into macOS over the years, including Gatekeeper, which restricts the installation of unsigned or unverified applications by default, XProtect, a built-in signature-based malware detection system that runs automatically without user configuration, and sandboxing that limits what actions apps distributed through the Mac App Store can perform on the broader system. These are genuine and meaningful protections, comparable in concept to security features found in modern Windows, but they reduce risk rather than eliminate it entirely, and security researchers, including Apple's own security engineers in public conference presentations, do not claim macOS is invulnerable to malware.
The practical security guidance from most cybersecurity firms today treats Mac and Windows devices similarly in terms of baseline precautions: keeping the operating system updated, being cautious about software downloaded from outside official app stores, and remaining alert to phishing, since a growing share of successful attacks against both platforms rely on tricking the user rather than exploiting a purely technical operating system vulnerability.
Common claims
- Macs cannot get viruses or malwareFalse. Multiple documented malware families have targeted macOS, including Flashback, KeRanger, Shlayer, and HVNC RATs.
- Macs are inherently more secure than WindowsPartially true. macOS has architectural security features, but lower market share was historically the primary factor in fewer attacks.
- Mac users do not need antivirus softwareContested. Apple provides XProtect and Gatekeeper, but third-party security software provides additional layers of detection.