Malware and Apple: changing perception, watch out

I’ve been following the discussion Ed Bott has been having recently about this new breed of Mac malware – and the response from Apple about it.  I won’t go into too much detail about it, but in vein of a quick TLDR summary for those who aren’t going to click the links, here’s the deal:

• there’s some Mac malware making the rounds
• users aren’t sure how to respond so they’re calling AppleCare about it
• Apple’s position is not to support malware removal through AppleCare…  or at all really.  Although I’m sure there’s some sort of paid option that I’m not finding.

I do understand Apple’s position in not wanting to support the malware removal.  Mostly because any kind of large-scale malware outbreak could break the bank from a remediation and support standpoint if malware removal is free.  Not to mention that it would (as the customer support rep Bott spoke to indicated), “set the expectation” that they would do this in the future. So I get it.  But on the other hand, you’d think Apple would want to minimize negative publicity in light of their recent location-tracking debacle.  But whatever, I’m not bringing it up because of that.

The reason I bring it up is the changing tone in the responses Ed is receiving about this.  Specifically, in reading through the comments to his posts, I was surprised: the instance of rabid mouthfrothing and death threats seems to be on the decline.  Compare, for example, this comment thread from an article about Mac malware in 2005 on “Ask Leo” vs the current Bott article.  See the difference in the tone and tenor?  In 2005, the community accepted on faith that Mac was “better engineered” and therefore immune to malware.  In 2005, the community took it as a given that malware for the mac was not only an impossibility, but to argue otherwise was laughable.  In light of that kind of perception, the Apple advertising message about being malware-free made sense.

But now look at the Bott article responses.  Do you see anyone claiming that malware for Mac is laughable?  I don’t.  There are folks saying it’s somehow less serious on Apple: either because the users being infected are somehow stupid (the “blame the victim” argument), how since the malware is a trojan it “doesn’t really count”, and how the volume of occurrence (i.e. less than on Windows) still somehow means Apple users are better off.  Say what you want about that, but the discussion isn’t about immunity anymore.  “Relative susceptibility” sure, but not immunity.  Instead of “it can’t happen to me”, it’s “it happens to me less than to the other guy” or “it only happens to stupid people”.  An interesting shift.

Because once the community decides that Mac users are not immune by virtue of the fruit logo, are they going to change their responses?  After all, Apple using freedom from malware as a sales pitch only works to the extent that people believe that’s true. If users know it’s false?  Seems like it’s backfire-fodder at that point.