AAPLCraig Federighi, Senior Vice President Software Engineering speaks during Apple’s annual world wide developer conference (WWDC) in San Jose, California, U.S. June 5, 2017.Stephen Lam | Reuters
Apple’s head of software, Craig Federighi, said in court on Wednesday that Apple is not pleased with the amount of harmful software, or malware, on its operating system for Mac computers, MacOS.
Federighi said the ability Apple gives users to install software from the internet on Mac computers is “regularly exploited” and that the iPhone’s operating system, iOS, has a “dramatically higher bar” for customer protection.
“Today, we have a level of malware on the Mac that we don’t find acceptable and that is much worse than iOS,” Federighi testified in the Epic Games v. Apple trial.
The difference between iPhone and Mac security is important in the trial because Epic Games is seeking to force Apple to allow it to install alternative app stores, which are permitted on Mac computers, on iPhones.
Epic Games argues that Apple can easily apply Mac software installation policies and security mechanisms to iPhones, while Apple says its App Store review process and rules keep users secure.
On Wednesday, Federighi said that the user base of the Mac is about one-tenth
