Mac computers have a good amount of harmful malware

Apple’s head of software Craig Federighi revealed that Mac computers, MacOS has a fair amount of harmful software or malware. He made this statement in the court for the Epic Games vs. Apple trial.

Federighi said the ability Apple gives users to install software from the internet on Mac computers is “regularly exploited” and that the iPhone’s operating system, iOS has a “dramatically higher bar” for customer protection. “Today, we have a level of malware on the Mac that we don’t find acceptance and that is much worse than iOS,” he told the court.

Epic Games argues that Apple can easily apply Mac software installation policies and security mechanisms to iPhones, while Apple says its App Store review process and rules keep users secure. Federigh told the court that the user base of the iPhone. In January, Apple had said that it had one billion active iPhone uses. “For iOS, we aspired to create something far more secure. All indications are that we have succeeded in doing so,” Federighi said.

Apple found and removed about 130 different kinds of malware on Macs in 2020 that had infected hundreds of thousands of user systems, compared with three kinds of malware that had infected iPhone. Each week, Apple identifies a couple pieces of malware on its own or with the help of third parties. The company uses built-in systems to automatically remove them from customers’ computers. But still, the malware can infect hundreds of thousands of computers before Apple stamps it out. Federigh highlighted that since May 2020, there have been 130 types of Mac malware, and one of them alone infected 300,000 systems. He believes Macs are still more secure than PCs, but made it clear that the Mac’s facing a significantly larger malware problem than are iPhones, iPads and Apple’s other devices.

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The court is considering whether Apple should be allowed to wall off its phones and tablets, only allowing apps to be installed through its App Store. However, Epic says that Apple’s approach is too restrictive and that competing technologies should be allowed onto its phones as well.

Federighi described the iPhone maker’s restrictive approach as an important part of protecting the more than one billion iPhones in active use. He said it’s an attractive target noting the cameras, microphones, location data and two-step authentication technology that are standard on smartphones these days. “All of these things make access or control of these devices potentially incredibly valuable to an attacker.”