What I’m not a fan of is deceptive advertising, particularly the kind that misleads people and could cause them harm. I understand that every ad is biased, but there’s a difference between saying “our car is safer” and saying “Our car is so safe you don’t need to wear a seat belt.” That’s one area where I have a problem with Apple and their advertising strategy. Their ads are biased, as you’d expect—but they are also deceptive. Take this recent example:

Cute, isn’t it? A brilliant piece of advertising propaganda. There’s just one small problem:

This ad is only half true, and Mac users who believe Apple is telling them the whole truth are setting themselves up for a nasty, eye-opening day of reckoning.

The “Macs are Immune” claim isn’t new. I had this debate 4 years ago with an avid Mac evangelist with great creative gifts but no technical background. Apple said it, he believes it, that settles it. Unfortunately, there are a lot of Mac users in that camp, good people without a lot of technical savvy who love their Macs and trust Mac’s maker to tell them the truth.

What urged me to write this entry is an alarming online comment I saw recently, posted by an intelligent and highly competent, tech-savvy CEO whom I hold in high regard. He was installing the recently-released Windows 7 Release Candidate on his Intel-based Mac using Parallels, a Virtual Machine application for Mac OSX. The red-flag phrase that caught my attention was his bemoaning the fact that he also had to install anti-virus software, since he’s installing Windows, “an OS that, unlike Mac, is vulnerable to viruses, spyware, and malware.” It’s the Apple company line, but I was surprised to hear it regurgitated by someone so well-informed. As an IT Professional, I have to tell you with all due respect that it’s simply not true.

Yes, unprotected PC’s are susceptible to viruses and malware, but unprotected Macs are just as susceptible. Any computer operating system is susceptible to such attacks, regardless of the operating system, if attackers have targeted that system.

There are fewer viruses and malware threats targeting MacOSX. That’s not surprising, since the goal of such threats is to infect as many machines as possible as quickly as possible. According to data released by Net Applications, as of May 2009 MacOS has a 9.81% share of the computing market, while Microsoft Windows still leads the pack with 87.75%. If you want to infect the largest number of machines and do the most damage, it only makes sense to target the operating system used by the largest number of people.

Macs by no means have automatic immunity. There are, and have been since 2006, active viruses and malware threats in the wild targeting MacOSX. Apple routinely generates security updates (patches to fix security flaws) for its products, just like Microsoft does. Apple just doesn’t like to talk about it as openly. Apple’s market share is slowly creeping upwards, and as it grows the likelihood of Mac-targeted attacks will grow as well. If you’re relying on that Apple logo to protect you, you’re in for a rude awakening one of these days.

I’m by no means a Microsoft evangelist. My day job includes technical management of around 200 machines in a broadcasting facility, and all but one use Microsoft Windows (a mix of Windows 2000, 2000 Server, XP Pro, and 2003 Server. The one non-Windows box is SCO Unix). I’m quite familiar with Microsoft’s shortfalls. There is no such thing as a perfect computer with perfect software and a perfect operating system. I have great respect for Apple’s OSX. Underneath that well-crafted user interface, OSX is based on BSD Unix, one of the world’s oldest and most revered computer operating systems. If Apple sold it as a stand-alone product to run on non-Apple hardware, I’d buy it—but I’d protect it with good antivirus software.

If you are a committed Mac lover, I’m glad you have something you love that works for you—after all, these things are tools, not life partners. The Apple logo on your computer is not an Immunity Idol. Protect yourself with the two things every computer should include: good anti-virus software, and good sense on the part of the user.

Whatever the operating system, remember that most security threats are basic gullibility tests. Be careful what you click!