
Many of the targets of viruses are governments and businesses, with an aim to either steal information, money, or create havoc.Many of the tools, scripts, and code used to create viruses or other malware are designed for Microsoft Windows.Most of the computer virus writers are more familiar with the IBM platform and Microsoft Windows, which means it's easier for them create a virus for that platform.Beginning with macOS X in March 2001, Macintosh operating systems are built on "Darwin," a fork of the BSD kernel.Below are some of the reasons why Apple Macintosh computers do not have as many viruses as Windows computers:
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In 2015, the senior e-threat analyst at Bitdefender, Bogdan Botezatu, was quoted as saying "Mac OS X software has more high-risk vulnerabilities than all versions of Windows put together." Despite that statement and apparent fact, Mac computers are still infected by viruses much less often than Windows computers. OSX/MaMi - Infected several thousand or more Apple computers in January 2018 designed to allow a person to view a computer's Internet traffic, also called "snooping.".OSX.PROTON - Infected thousands of Apple computers in 2017 designed to steal user's account credentials by accessing the macOS Keychain app.


Several examples of viruses that have infected Apple Macintosh computers include the following. For the sake of simplicity, 'virus' will be used on this page and refers to either a virus or malware. The term 'virus' and 'malware' are often used interchangeably.
