Apple says- Get Antivirus!

Mathiau said:

And Safari isnt prone to attacks? i recall in a past competition Safari was the first one to get comprimised allowing full access to the system...

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You're putting words in my mouth - nowhere did I mention Safari. I mentioned IE specifically because these types of attacks are far more common on IE. The Safari attack you're referring to was built specifically for a hacking competition and was not "in the wild", so to speak. Regardless, I'm not going to defend Safari as I find it lacking in many ways, including Apple's slowness to patch security flaws. I use an highly recommend Firefox for this and many other reasons.

My main point however, is that other, alternative browsers have a better track record in terms of number of attacks. This may be because they are more obscure, but it's a relevant fact nonetheless when you're considering your security options.

Looks like Apple pulled the article after all the hullabaloo...

Apple removes antivirus support page | Macworld

Forum Shark said:

why else would Apple (who, for so many years, boasted about it's "virus-free" computers) be worried about this all of a sudden?

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Apple has never either officially or publicly boasted about "virus-free" computers.
To be more precise, some (inexperienced and/or uneducated) Apple users have made such braggart remarks over the years.

cwa107 said:

Looks like Apple pulled the article after all the hullabaloo...

Apple removes antivirus support page | Macworld

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And why did they pull the article?

Apple spokesman Bill Evans said:

"We have removed the KnowledgeBase article because it was old and inaccurate,"

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Again, this suggestion is nothing new.
Apple is not "suddenly" interested in this topic, nor are they overwhelmed with any recently heightened fear about the possibility of an OS X virus.

The original AppleInsider article only shows how AppleInsider and other rumor-mill sites like it, (MacRumors, Gizmodo, et al) often get the information wrong... then have to publish retractions, corrections or just plain "new" information to cover for themselves when it is proven they are wrong.

Other Windows-biased, sensationalist media outlets print anti-Apple articles like the one this thread mentions from time to time. It's been this way for the past two decades. They do so to prey on the fears of new Macintosh users, fresh from the world of Windows, with hopes of swaying them from Apple... why, I will never understand.
After a while, you learn to take their "news" with a hefty grain of salt.

The Apple market share has grown quite a bit recently, so we should expect to see more and more scare-tactics and fear-mongering from Windows-biased media (like the BBC) in the weeks and months to come.
I would strongly advise and suggest that everybody invest in a 50-gallon drum of Morton's if you plan on reading these upcoming articles.

I feel so conflicted about this issue. I just recently got my mac and ditched windows because of the many issues they have. So far so good, no virus. And from what other users are telling me I'm sure I won't have to deal with that anytime soon. Although it is better to be safe then sorry. I'm not too sure if I'am going to install one yet..