The Genius Bar Technician Is Right
The Genius Bar Technician Is Right
Yes.
Godfrey’s list is excellent as a reference to do list.
Yes, it is.
OS X is, in fact, significantly less vulnerable to malware. For instance there has never been a wide-spread ransomware attack (such as WannaCry) on OS X.
As others mentioned, web browser's are the most significant software-based vulnerability. Apps that are not vetted by the Apple OS X App Store or not downloaded from authentic third-party vendor sites are another source of concern. These are easy to avoid.
OS X users who follow common sense procedures (keep software up to date) are mostly vulnerable to malware that requires direct user action. These are standard phishing and email impersonation attacks.
Even unsophisticated phishing and email impersonation attacks can be avoided by using two OS X accounts. One account has administrative privileges. This account is only used for updating software and other rarely needed administrative tasks. A second account that limits OS X background/automated execution privileges is used for every day work. This user account can prevent most malware from loading and, or running.
You will read FUD [1] press reports from security software companies attempting to scare OS X users (particularly those who switch from Windows). Some of these reports may be technically accurate but none of them have ever been used in wide-spread attacks on the consumer OS X installations.
There are valid press reports of OS X vulnerabilities. In some cases Apple has been slow to fix these. None of these have been used in large scale attacks. They have been used (mostly by governments and other sophisticated agents) for very specific purposes.
1. Fear, Uncertainty, Death - i.e. propaganda
