5 tips to protect your Mac

Any discussion of the concept of security in Apple systems is not straightforward. This is not something that arises from the manufacturer’s clear concern to protect its products from external threats, but rather an undertaking of ‘good practice’ from the brand. And it’s true that Apple has historically witnessed few security issues, primarily as a result of its lower sales compared to its direct competitor, Windows.

The truth is it would have been somewhat strange if hackers had developed malware for such a niche platform, and it would have been even stranger had Apple developed the necessary measures to prevent its customers from being compromised, if this had never occurred in the past.

With a global share of the desktop market of around 6% in 2012, it was hardly profitable to create malware for Mac nor was it viable to develop the means to defend against something that barely existed.

To say that there are no viruses that affect Mac systems is highly dangerous: it leads to confusion, and in terms of security, confusion leads to financial losses.

5 tips to protect your Mac

1. Your Mac system is not invulnerable

Keep in mind the following unequivocal truth: Your Mac system is not invulnerable. Your computer could be infected and your systems, instead of helping you detect it, could be working against you, making you think simply that viruses ‘don’t work’ on Mac.

2. Get a good third-party antivirus

Whatever your Mac OS version ,you will benefit greatly in terms of protection if you use an antivirus for Mac. The malware in circulation at the moment aims to overcome Apple’s own protection, and the more antivirus solutions there are on the market, the more the efforts of hackers will be diluted and consequently the chances of infection will be much lower than if there is a de-facto monopoly on security.

3. Install all updates

Install all updates as soon as they are released for your operating system and for any third-party applications you have installed.

4. Take care which files you run

Sites like Facebook, Twitter and others are a typical source of malware from so-called ‘friends’. The same applies to email attachments from unknown senders and files downloaded from P2P programs: only download and run files from reliable sources.

5. Disable problematic software

Java and Flash are both technologies with a long history of bugs and exploits. Go to the Security panel of your Safari browser and disable the Java module or click ‘Manage website settings’ depending on the browser version.