Does APPLE employ hackers to produce viruses for P.C's?

After a conversation with a few of my work colleages lastweek, they got me wondering....Does the Apple Computer Company employ hackers to invent viruses that infect Personal computers?
It has been said to me often that Apple does not get infected by them, and after many tribulations my colleagues have 'jumped-ship' and payed extra to own an Apple Computer because of this fact.
I had a look on Google and all I could come up with was this article!

In a nutshell: probably not.
They might, but it seems rather ridiculously unlikely. It's not like a couple new viruses are going to make things significantly worse for Microsoft, and their time would be better spent on improving their own products.

reply to post by KRISKALI777


Why would they pay them when most hackers do it out of either personal spite or are paid by spyware, antivirus, security software companies.

Nope, between Symantec and mcafee those guys are securely employed for life.

Leaving the Apple boys to concentrate on their pretties.

[edit on 13 Jun 2009 by schrodingers dog]

i think the virus cleaner program companies are the ones who write all of the viruses

virus are written by companies that advertise alot, basically they stick these things in their ads so they can infiltrate your comp and force you to view even more adds

i do not think ive ever got a virus from a lone gunman, it has always originated from within some mega corporation, especially anti-virus giants

reply to post by muzzleflash


Maybe virus cleaner programs are made by subsiduary companies of APPLE

Being an Apple user for 12 years now I can honestly say that my computing experience is a lot more stable and pleasurable than it ever was on a windows system... I don't have to install drivers for everything... it already comes bundled with enough software out of the box to start working with immediately and even before they switched over to either an Intel chip of the UNIX based software... it was stable and solid enough to... well just work.

Apple doesn't need to write viruses or do anything else to make Microsoft products look bad... they already are bad... they are the prodominate system because they liesence out to everyone... not because they are any good...

Just look at the whole Vista fiasco... its not even three years old and they are dumping it for Windows 7.

I doubt that even Apple would stoop that low. There would be little need to with dedicated fanboys like the previous poster who are not computer literate enough to use a Windows computer without having "issues" and who quite happily pay more to prevent feeling like an idiot when they can't fix crap they break. Having Used Windows since 3.1 I can fully understand why it is people choose to use Windows, it is simply better at most things than the alternatives (and yes I have used both OSX and Linux thx). As for the "Vista fiasco", the only fiasco was the sheer amount of unfounded FUD, which still seems to ooze from every orifice of those who after 2 years still don't know what they're talking about. Vista sold more retail copies in the first 2 years than XP and was more stable than XP and needed less in the way of post RTM bug fixing in its first 2 years than XP. There was no fiasco, only a bandwagon.

The reason there is less malware in OSX (and Linux) is not becuase it cannot be done, it is because it is not worth doing. If you're going to target a demographic you're going to play the numbers game and go for the largest, not the insignificant. Even if you add Linux and OSX added together they're still insignificant, and so not worth targeting.

[edit on 13-6-2009 by quackers]

reply to post by quackers


Hi Quakers!

I doubt that even Apple would stoop that low.

Are they in business or what?
I think they would

Business sure, but has not Apple been in that business quite a but longer than Microsoft has? If I remember correctly if it was not for Microsoft giving Apple some much needed financial support a few years back there would be no Mac fanboys shouting about how the sun shines out of Jobs ring piece as they'd have gone bust. Apple is niche, and appeal mostly to pompus self indulgent well to do's who are easily distracted by shiney things and at that Apple excels. Meanwhile the grown ups get on with things, Lunix with their servers and Microsoft with their desktops, for everyone else, theres OSX, the cartoon OS. I too would be more inclined to point my finger in the general direction of Symantec and their kind.

[edit on 13-6-2009 by quackers]

Originally posted by quackers
I doubt that even Apple would stoop that low. There would be little need to with dedicated fanboys like the previous poster who are not computer literate enough to use a Windows computer without having "issues" and who quite happily pay more to prevent feeling like an idiot when they can't fix crap they break. Having Used Windows since 3.1 I can fully understand why it is people choose to use Windows, it is simply better at most things than the alternatives (and yes I have used both OSX and Linux thx). As for the "Vista fiasco", the only fiasco was the sheer amount of unfounded FUD, which still seems to ooze from every orifice of those who after 2 years still don't know what they're talking about. Vista sold more retail copies in the first 2 years than XP and was more stable than XP and needed less in the way of post RTM bug fixing in its first 2 years than XP. There was no fiasco, only a bandwagon.

The reason there is less malware in OSX (and Linux) is not becuase it cannot be done, it is because it is not worth doing. If you're going to target a demographic you're going to play the numbers game and go for the largest, not the insignificant. Even if you add Linux and OSX added together they're still insignificant, and so not worth targeting.

[edit on 13-6-2009 by quackers]

I detect some kind of hate towards non-windows systems here

Vista sold more retail copies than windows XP, what happened then to all those happy users that bought their own copy of Vista? why didn't Vista had the success MS expected, just look on the web, do you think all those people who went to the stores to buy a copy of Vista are newbies? don't you think the people who don't know how to use a computer beyond chatting and email will be thinking about updating from windows xp and going to the store to buy a Vista CD?

Vista is a failure, because it is a failure, it could be the greates OS in the history of computers, or not, it doesn't matter, it is a failure, same as with OS/2 and IBM, before Win95 it was way better, in fact, and still it was a failure, why?

In general windows is crap, it has been since the first days, and i too have used windows 3.11, win95, win98, win2k, winxp and Vista, and i can say for sure, it is bran dead, it has been years and years and we still get idiotic things like asking over and over again if you are sure you want to remove a file inside a folder because it is read only, and then when you click yes to all still will ask again on the next folder, dumb! nothing like coming back after an hour expecting a 30 gb folder to be gone only to find a prompt asking if a file should be removed, even after having said yes to all before leaving...



Mac OS, as any other OS, has issues, that's to be expected, i don't use it that much, i work with windows, but i do like it, i also like linux, which by the way also has a lot of issues, no system is perfect and never will.

But i won't be taking ridiculous posses or lame flame wars over something i really don't care about and can't change anyway.

Let's write our own OS so that it be flawless... Wait!, that was supposed to be Linux....

Vista had some initial problems with hardware compatability, mostly peripherals like legacy printers and webcams. However, this in itself was not Microsofts fault, it was the manufacturers who decided to use it as an opportunity to sell new gear and so simply stopped developing and updating hardware drivers. Everyone blamed Microsoft, Vista got bad press and it went on from there. There was also the UI differences. People are mostly stupid see, and when you alter their routine they freak out. Rather than take some time and learn, people just bashed it due to their own inabilities to adjust (something not specific to the computer world), Vista got more bad press and so it went. Vista was, in all reality, no different to the Win2k->XP transition. I don't hate OSX, I tend to dislike most of the people who use it though as they all seem to have the exact same personalities, bird of a feather and all that. The OS has it's merits but it's just as over priced in that respect as Windows is, but unlike OSX Windows does everything I need (audio/video/gaming and without extortionately priced and limited/propriatary hardware upgrades). Linux, well, maybe in another 20 years.

[edit on 13-6-2009 by quackers]

reply to post by Kaifan


yeah well what can I say Kaifan???
Its that old adage of .....my school-shoes are better than yours

Who knows, probably not, but i'm sure they have employees with specific skills to heal such things if there was a threat to their creations. Apple is it's own little world. For myself it's been a smooth ride except the hinge on my screen was loose after 4 months of cautious use, and the battery feels like it's internally melting, other than that it's great. Using Windows has become is inconvenient, Mac is streamlined functionability. I'd make some changes still tho...

Apple and OSX is for hair stylists and wardrobe designers.
Linux is for masochists.

And they're all an insignificant speck.

reply to post by quackers


I fully agree with you, quackers. I got online for the first time in 2005, and used Windows because it came on the PC. I later upgraded from Window 98 to 2000 Pro, and after numerous malware, trojan, and virus attacks, I began to look for another operating system. A friend turned me on to Ubuntu, which lead me to distrowatch. The past few years I have tried a lot of Linux distros, including Debian, Mepis, PC Linux, and Fedora. I like Fedora the best, even though it is the hardest to configure. I would never go back to using Windows. Being a PC repairman, most of my customers have a Windows computer, but I always offer to install any flavor of Linux for free. Several have taken me up on this, and love Linux. I am happy that Linux/Unix is still small and insignificant in the computer software world. If everyone used it, the hackers and virus people would target us too. I haven't had one virus or software problem in years with Linux, and have forgotten what a pop up is. Active X is lost in my computer past, and the fatal blue screen of death is something I never see anymore. I can even use Windows programs on my Fedora using Wine. Oh, don't go and download a copy, keep using Windows, friends. Keep those hackers busy.

As a software developer for an independant firm, I admit we talk about the nature and structure of viruses a lot. Honestly, I really do think the only reason virus affect PCs more than macs is because PCs are used more than macs. If it were the other way around there would be more mac viruses and little to no PC viruses.

There are those that beg for increased mac market share, but think of it this way -- if Mac were to suddenly become popular, then virus writers would start taking advantage of 20+ years of security holes that were never exploited and thus never discovered and patched. OS writing is very challenging, involving many teams and many branches of development. As in the natural world, when you get so many divergant systems in play, the hybrid connections (unintended and unplanned connections that exist between two randomly interacting systems) will open holes that were never tested for during unit testing, qa testing, and user testing.

On another note. I haven't had a blue screen of death on my XP development machine in two years. I haven't had a virus in longer than that. But then I don't falling into phishing schemes and i don't download/open crap without scanning with a current up to date virus scanner. I prefer Avira, btw. Great scanning capabilities without the overhead that AVG brings along.. and it's free.

Same here, haven't seen a blue screen of death on my XP box for years. And Avira is great, changed over from AVG 8 when it got all bloated (bit like Vista)

As far as Apple employing hackers to produce viruses. I doubt it, unless Steve Jobs produced iVirus, iTrogan & iMalware packages. Apple iHackers wouldn't bother.

I think you'll find if any one's doing it, it would be anti-virus companies so they can sell more software. sure some malware is written by neckbeards in a basement who like pissing off everyone else but i don't buy that its the only source.

reply to post by KRISKALI777


No, that would be illegal. That's not to say that some bozo working for Apple might not be a rogue programmer intent on inflicting a little pain onto his competition. Writing malicious software is not in and of itself illegal in the US. However, willfully spreading such a program designed to cause damage and harm is a crime punishable by fine and imprisonment.

[edit on 13-6-2009 by mjfromga]