Most of what Windows has implemented since 7 with UAC, MSSE and now integrated with Defender is a layer on top that introduces some failsafes. I won't argue that it's been a massive and much-needed improvement to Windows, but Java and Flash still provide viable vectors to bypass it and infect a Windows machine.
Designing actual viruses - stuff that has the ability to read and modify the filesystem - is still harder to pull off undetected on OSX. This article intimates as much. Most of what's included here is either bundled applications you don't want - but you still have to actively find and then agree to - or browser modifications. Neither of those is within 500 sqmi of, say, CryptoLocker.
"Most of the infections on Windows aren't due to some huge security issue on Windows that Macs are magically immune to. They are due to the users themselves installing adware or malware-infected software from sites online."
This is 100% accurate and what most home users have to deal with in terms of issues on Windows. The vast majority of Windows issues that end users experience and get frustrated over have nothing to do with Java or Flash flaws or needing to compromise a system. The users themselves give the apps permission to install and do their thing.
It's also worth noting that Java and Flash don't provide much of an attack vector for the majority of Windows users you and I know anymore either. Firefox won't permit outdated versions of the Java or Flash plugins with security issues to run and will direct you to update. Chrome has its own version of Flash built in and automatically updated with the browser and disables Java by default. Even Internet Explorer blocks outdated ActiveX plugins like old and insecure versions of Flash and Java these days.
Are there improvements on the browser and OS side that are helping? Sure. Do those impact the vast majority of Windows users? Probably not. Look at browser & OS version usage and you'll see that the "users you and I know" are probably not indicative of the majority of users in general. At least not yet.
What I'd meant by that line was that this doesn't apply to users in other countries where the majority of users are still using hacked (and completely insecure) versions of Windows XP. Sadly, Windows XP still represents about 19% of online users. Thankfully, most of those users are using a 3rd party browser as IE 6 is down around 1%.
Remember, you don't need administrative privileges to destroy everything belonging to the user, which is most things you care about. And even if you do, elevating is trivial on both Windows and OS X.
Java and Flash behave no differently on OS X than Windows. They are no more or less of a hole in either OS. In fact, there are more protections against Java and Flash bugs on Windows. There just also happens to be more attacker investment in those platforms as well.
...Unlike Mac which doesn't have Java or Flash?
I keep hearing this stats, and it's not true that a platform is hit based on how much share it has.
Share does affect the volume of the available malware, but not whether it exists or not. And for 10+ years on Mac it was unexisting -- all such cases touted by the media were proven to be trojan horses, not viruses and such.
Contrast with Mac OS classic that was plagued by lots of viruses, despite having 2% market share at best at the time. Or even platforms like the Amiga and Atari -- viruses were prevalent.
Most of the issues today are about money or reputation.
Adware and spyware makes money for the publisher, so they target areas where they can do that. It's actually legal and semi-legitimate. It's an annoyance for the end user, of course. A freeware publisher doesn't make any money from their app but they can make money from bundling an ad replacer, search engine replacer, browser extension, etc with their free software. So, they do.
Malware follows the same trail. You can distribute cracked software online over torrents like Photoshop and the like but sneak your remote-controllable malware into it. Then you get more installs you can use to direct a DDoS bot attack or to watch for and steal financial details from the local machine. Maybe look for the default install of a cryptocurrency client and grab the local wallet, for instance. Note that this is more difficult on both modern Windows and modern Mac than it was back in the days of Mac classic.
I don't install too much outside a package manager in any OS... just the same, it is a pretty significant issue.
Not sure how significant. Haven't seen anything in the wild on OS X -- and I do install lots outside of package managers...
A few on windows are doing transparent proxies, which are pretty nasty (not just the lenovo one).
I don't believe the "overpriced Mac sheeple" meme at all, but there always seemed to be an overlap between people who dismiss them as "safe because they're so rare" and "Apple tax LOL" critics. That always struck me as an interesting dichotomy.
Most of the infections on Windows aren't due to some huge security issue on Windows that Macs are magically immune to. They are due to the users themselves installing adware or malware-infected software from sites online. Now that there are more Macs out there, the reward is greater. So, there is more revenue to be made form adware-laden software and a better return for the time investment/risk of creating malware for Macs (to send out spam, be used in DDoS attacks, sniff for and steal financial info and passwords, etc).