Check out the Macalope's column "Lies, damned lies, and statistics" in which he discusses yet another (strange) survey trumpeting trouble for Apple.
He also discusses Apple trumpeting about Macs being more secure, and makes a good analogy to be somewhat more realistic: "no matter how nice the neighborhood, you can only leave your houses unlocked for so long before something bad happens".
Clearly, no matter how secure Macs are to start, if you make insecure choices (ex: easy password, auto-login, etc.) you may find yourself in trouble.
The comments below the article are worth reading too; and indeed security does include many things.
One factor is the default config. In MS Windows, virtually everything defaults to "on" whereas the Mac defaults to "off"; you can't be attacked via a door that isn't there.
Another factor is monoculture vs. diversity; much malware depends on the targets running IE or Outlook or whatever - whereas the Mac market benefits from a different and more varied environment and so is more difficult to target.
Macs are certainly not immune (nothing is) - however they do suffer from far less malware and one reason is that they start out more secure than MS Windows. The rest is up to you.
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