As we talked about in, you may have been led to believe that you don’t have to worry about computer viruses on your Mac. And, to some extent, there’s truth to that. While your Mac can definitely be infected with malware, Apple’s built-in capabilities are meant to make it less likely that you’ll download and run malicious software. Apple introduced malware detection to the Mac OS with Snow Leopard (Mac OS 10.6). This system consists of the quarantine of any app downloaded from the Internet, the use of Code Signing certificates to verify that an app is coming from a legit source, and regular security updates that include databases of known malware targeting the Mac OS.

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Because of this system, called File Quarantine and occasionally referred to as XProtect: • Apps in quarantine display a dialog window reminding you where the app came from and asking whether or not you’re sure you want to open it. • Apps with no code signing certificate, depending on your Gatekeeper settings, may display a message saying the app can’t be opened because of your settings.

(For software you know is good you can bypass this by control-clicking the app and selecting Open from the resulting contextual menu.) • Apps that are known malware cannot be opened at all. You’ll be met with a message offering the option to toss the app in the trash. And this is why Macs remain mostly virus and malware free. To make sure your Mac malware database is always up to date you’ll want to verify that your Mac always automatically installs security updates and related system data files. To do this: • Open System Preferences • Open the App Store preference • Make sure that Automatically check for updates and Install system data files and security updates are checked.

This should keep your Mac free from most malicious software, although it’s important to note that it does not make it impossible for malicious software to be installed on your Mac. There is no software that’s able to catch everything. If new malware is released today and you download and run it today you will have done so before Apple’s databases could have been updated. So it’s always best to be wise when downloading software from unknown sources. While it’s unlikely that your Mac will run any malware, there is possibly a more pernicious issue: You Mac could become the Windows viruses, which is to say, you could be harboring viruses on your Mac that won’t effect you, but can be problems for Windows users. Think I’m joking?