Apple's Security Paradox

Even as Macs have multiplied, the number of viruses and Trojans targeting them has fallen.

As Apple's slice of the computer market grows, cyber security researchers have long warned that hackers would someday turn their attention away from PCs and toward innocent Macbooks and iPhones.

That day, it turns out, has yet to come. But virus-fearing Apple (nasdaq: AAPL - news - people ) fans could be forgiven for thinking it had.

On Monday, Washington Post blogger Brian Krebs wrote that Apple had "quietly published" a note on its technical support site recommending Apple users install antivirus software. In fact, the recommendation had been on Apple's site for more than a year. But other blogs and media outlets took the Post's story as evidence that Apple computers have finally lost the "immunity" to viruses and other malicious code that the company touts in its "Mac vs. PC" ads.

On Tuesday evening, Apple deleted the antivirus recommendation, writing in a statement to the press that it was "old and inaccurate," and reiterating the claim that Apple devices are safe "right out of the box."

That sounds like a bold statement--but at least for now, it's also true, say security researchers.

Even as Apple's share of the computer market has risen, the incidence of viruses and Trojans has--surprise--gone down. In the last six months, Finnish cyber security firm, F-Secure, has detected 13 new samples of malicious software, or "malware," targeting Apple's OS X operating system.

By contrast, every day F-Secure pulls from the Internet between 20,000 and 30,000 new samples of malicious code aimed at PCs. "I can't even calculate the percentage that targets Macs," says Patrik Runald, a researcher with F-Secure. "It's peanuts."