That doesn't mean Macs are safe, only that Mac users have a "go ahead, run this unsigned binary, who needs anti-virus" attitude about potential threats, Stamos told an audience at this year's Black Hat security conference in Las Vegas.

The truth about Macs and malware, according to Stamos, McAfee Labs and other vendors is:

Threats to Windows machines are actually going down, at least proportionately, as Microsoft's security improves and the popularity of Adobe products draws more malware writers to focus on it rather than Windows, McAfee's report showed.

The issue is not that Adobe code is insecure, just that it is growing in popularity more quickly than the stable user base of Windows, the report said. Since January, malware threats collected by McAfee that were aimed at Adobe products have increased from a little over 4,000 per month to just over 14,000 in June -- growth of 330 percent in six months.