Apple's software chief says the level of malware on the Mac is 'unacceptable'

MacOS does not meet the 'dramatically higher bar' established by iOS for customer protection, says senior vice president Federighi

Criticising the security of his own Mac operating system, Apple ' s senior vice president of software engineering, Craig Federighi, told a federal court on Wednesday that the level of malware on the MacOS operating system is unacceptable and worse than iOS.

The admission came during Federighi ' s testimony in Apple ' s antitrust case with Fortnite maker Epic Games in the federal court in Oakland, California.

The gaming firm, in this case, is seeking to force Apple to allow it to install alternative app stores on iPhones, similar to how Apple permits on Mac computers.

Epic says that the iPhone maker ' s approach is too restrictive, and that competing technologies should be allowed onto its mobile phones as well. It also argues that Apple can easily implement security measures on iPhones, although Apple says that its App Store rules are meant to keep users safe from malicious software.

In his testimony, Federighi tried to explain to the court why Apple shouldn ' t be forced to loosen its grip over iPhone and iPad app distribution.

"If you took Mac security techniques and applied them to the iOS ecosystem, with all those devices, all that value, it would get run over to a degree dramatically worse than is already happening on the Mac," Federighi said in response to a question from Judge Yvonne Gonzalez Rogers, according to CNBC.

"And as I say, today, we have a level of malware on the Mac that we don ' t find acceptable and is much worse than iOS," he added.

Federighi said that his own family members have encountered malware on macOS, and that the security on iPhone and iPad would erode if users are allowed to install software from the web or other stores.

The executive said that "iOS has established a dramatically higher bar for customer protection," and said that the Mac currently does not meet that bar.

Cybersecurity firm Malwarebytes also said last year that amount of malware on Macs was outpacing that on PCs for the first time.

Thomas Reed, Malwarebytes' director of Mac and mobile, stated at the time that "people need to understand that they're not safe just because they're using a Mac."

In his testimony, Federighi told the court that Apple last year removed about 130 different kinds of malware on Macs, of which one malware infected more than 300,000 user systems.

In comparison, just three different kinds of malware were found on iPhones.

Federighi cited a recent report from Nokia which said that iOS devices accounted for 1.72 per cent of all mobile malware infections, compared with 38.92 per cent for Windows and 26.64 per cent for Android.

"Android still has a considerable malware problem," Federighi said.

CEO Tim Cook is expected to appear in the court on Friday, with trial scheduled to end on Monday after three weeks.