Story: Sophos founder: Mac viruses are spreading
It
The PRIMARY reason that viruses are rampant on Windows is that it has such a huge surface area to attack. This has nothing to do with market share, but with the promiscuous design of the core APIs and the way applications like Internet Explorer use it.
The star of the show is the Microsoft HTML control, with Office coming in half a lap behind.
The major virus floods started in 1997. They didn't start because Windows suddenly became more popular. They started because Active Desktop ... merging the desktop shell, Internet Explorer, and Outlook Express... made attacking Windows so much easier.
The anti-virus companies have been arguing that this flood is going to spread to other platforms "soon" since shortly after the flood occurred. It hasn't, because no other platform gives attackers such a wide variety of ways to get in.
On the Mac, on UNIX, on Palms, on Windows-powered handlelds, the only reliable way to get someone to run an infected file is to convince the user to deliberately open and run it. On Windows, all you have to do is convince the OS that you're in a trusted zone.
Until that difference changes, one way or the other, the only antivirus you absolutely need on anything but Windows is common sense. And that's what scares the AV companies.
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