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Apple tones down language touting OS X security measures

Apple's website used to boldly claim that the Mac "doesn't get PC viruses," but following the spread of the Flashback botnet, the company has since toned down the language to say that OS X is "built to be safe."

The changed list of features on Apple's promotional website for OS X was first noticed by PCWorld. Another headline on the site used to say that users could safeguard their data "by doing nothing," but the page has since been changed to read, "Safety. Built right in."

The new, revised language is less boastful about OS X security, and the it no longer mentions "the thousands of viruses plaguing windows-based computers." Rather than putting down Windows PCs, Apple now simply focuses on how OS X helps to keep users safe.

The changes come just a few months after more than 600,000 Macs were estimated to have been infected by a trojan horse named "Flashback." More than half of the Macs believed to be infected by the botnet were found in the U.S. alone.

The first iteration of the malware appeared in 2011 disguised as an Adobe Installer. Following installation, Flashback harvests sensitive data like user IDs, passwords and web browsing history and sends the information to an off-site server.

After the malware began to spread rapidly, Apple responded by releasing a number of software updates to block Flashback. Apple also issued a Flashback-specific malware tool in April.