Apple upgrade provides anti-virus protection

Apple has finally acknowledged its desktop computers are susceptible to viruses and malicious software.

The Cupertino, California, company behind the Apple Mac, iPod, iPhone and iPad has included anti-virus and malware software called Gatekeeper in its new OS X Mountain Lion operating system, released last week.

"Some apps downloaded and installed from the internet could adversely affect your Mac," Apple's website said. "Gatekeeper helps protect your Mac from such apps.

"Gatekeeper is a new feature in Mountain Lion that builds on OS X's existing malware checks to help protect your Mac from malware and misbehaving apps.

"The safest and most reliable place to download and install apps is via the Mac App Store.

"Apple reviews each app before it's accepted by the store, and if there's ever a problem with an app, Apple can quickly remove it from the store."

OS X Mountain Lion is available for download from the Mac App Store for $20.99.

Gatekeeper, like similar technology built into competitor Microsoft's Internet Explorer 9 web browser, checks downloads for anything that could harm the way the computer runs or spy on what the user is doing online.

Until now, Apple has downplayed the risk of viruses attacking its machines, causing many users not to worry about using such third-party software to protect their machines.

But Apple machines are not immune to viruses, it is just that few malware writers bothered attacking Apple's operating systems until fairly recently because they occupy such a small part of the computer market.