I love a good game of competition, especially amongst companies.  As I was sitting and watching a Mac TV commercial "Get A Mac" bashing Microsoft for it’s thousands of invulnerabilities when it comes to viruses, Mac came out a winner, no doubt in my mind.   They knew they had a solid foundation and ran with it. 

The Mac OS X stands alone in the world as the one operating system, (except for malware), that has no virus threats.   Mac OS X systems in 2005 delegated less than 4% of the worldwide installed base of computers. That might explain why there were fewer Mac viruses back then and now.

Back in March 2005, DVForge, Inc. announced the 2005 Mac OS X Virus Prize, where the company is openly challenging all of the computer coders of the world to go after the $25,000 cash prize that they are offering to the first person to successfully create and deploy an "in the wild" active virus for the Mac OS X operating system.  The Contest was held to lay to rest, once and for all, the myths surrounding the lack of spreading computer viruses on the Macintosh OS X operating system.

Symantec Corporation in 2005  released information to the press suggesting that they believe that the Mac OS X platform is at substantial risk to a new virus infection, and that the principal reason that OS X presently has zero in-the-wild viruses is simply the lack of interest by virus coders, due to the platform's comparatively small market share. By this definition, there have been hundreds, if not thousands, of Windows viruses, a handful of Mac OS 9 viruses, and not one for Mac OS X.

In the meantime, DVForge, Inc. invited Symantech Corporation programmers to join in on the fun and send two executable viruses to the two contest Mac’s.   If the programmers succeeded, the prize money would be doubled to $50,000. 

That same day, DVForge, Inc. cancelled the contest stating that although they have been convinced that the risk of a virus on the OS X platform is not zero, although it is remarkably close to zero.   Not to say that Mac OS X won’t be vunerable in the future. 

In 2005, there were 68,736 Microsoft Windows viruses compared to zero for Apple Mac’s OS X.   

The only problem on OS X is from macros with Microsoft products and from mail attachments. These do not harm the Mac environment but may damage a Windows computer if sent.   The security architecture in Mac is much more tighter than Windows. However, it is not foolproof. There have been plenty of OSX vulnerabilities in the past and without a doubt more will be identified in the future. To understand why they these vulnerabilities are not actively exploited is simple. First, market share has a role in it, which should not be dismissed. At 11% now, OSX is still pretty small.

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Symantec and other anti-virus software manufacturers are now advising that Mac owners should get some type of anti-virus protection on their computer.  If you were a company like Symantech, why not?  It’s good for business. Talk enough people into downloading antivirus onto their Mac’s and make money when they do.  Fair enough.  After all, in four years, the percentage of Mac owners is still relatively small.

Can't argue with generating some revenue for the company.  That is the reason  they are in business to begin with.   It will be fun to see the next Mac commercial.  I can’t wait.