Hello.

I know nothing about Mac's so here's a simple question:
do Mac computers get viruses / spyware, etc., when on the internet?

I have heard many times that they do not. Please give me the definitive answer.

If they do, what software do you recommend to counter it?

Thanks,

G.

PLEASE do not put "Mac's" when you mean the plural rather than the possessive, it annoys a great deal of people out there...
and yes, Macs do get viruses, but on no scale compared to Windows machines

There are some viruses for Mac's, but nothing you can just "catch" while surfing the internet. For the few Mac viruses out there, there are thousands more for Windows. But no, virus software is not necessary.

so, surfing the internet is danger free...sounds too good to be true! (from a PC user).

Finally, let me get this straight; I need to use NO protection software when using MacOS X?

[I'm having trouble getting my head around this concept!!!!!!!!!!!]

Thanks,

G.

i guess there is nav for macos

what do you use?

no antivirus here, it's useless for now, all the "virus" you can get are bad apps asking for an admin pass to be installed

do you use any protection software?

my brain

how about rootkit? does that consider dangerous?

My guess is 90%+ of the people don't.

Remember, just because a Mac may not be affected by most viruses, doesn't mean it can't relay them onto Windows users.

Simple question: do you use any protection software?

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brain

what kind of protection do you want?!

my brain is asking your brain for an answer...

i use nothing.... i thought it was clear...lol

many thanks

I would be very gratefull if you could tell me how you had your system QUAD booted.. i mean which programs help you to do it and how you use them!!!

Quit surfing porn sites and downloading illegal copies of retail software and you may never end up with a virus on your "Mac's."

The only third party tool I used was EasyBCD from Neosoft, other than that it's all possible just by installing to different drives.

Only used Symantec Antivirus back in the system 7 days. I quit using after that. I think i remember reading there were something like a hundred viruses for mac os classic, and like 40 something thousand for windows at the time like 8 years ago. Any current viruses for Mac OS X would require you to run a program and input an administrator password to install. Even rootkits require a password.

Don't install pirated software, ever. It's a no brainer. Most of the people I speak with here have bought Leopard, along with iLife and iWork, both of which are cheap (and so they should be, with the free and wonderful openoffice biting at their heels). If you want a free ride, Ubuntu 8.04 liveCD is a great way of trying Linux without installing anything. You'll be amazed at how slick and easy to use it is. openSUSE 11 is perhaps even more impressive. Either way, safe surf as best you can and avoid porn sites. A windows user in 2008 is not a comfortable thing to be. That said, if you have a great deal of time to waste on things other than focusing on what you want to actually do with your computer, windows is the way to go. Pest control on windows computers seems to be a full time hobby, for some. I suspect that those of my friends who have had their credit card details lifted by a key logger, possibly were careless about where their software came from or where they surfed.

I do want to get into the habit of reimaging my hard drives, periodically, but no, I don't use antivirus software, though for a time I ran Clam on my Mac Mini. It never found anything.

I use no antivirus protection at all. If something were to "happen" to my OS X install, I would just restore a disc image or use Time Machine.

Indeed.

Macs generally don't get viruses, doesn't mean there are some out there.

last year we develope DEVOTIONEX
it is a remote admin tool, (hidden), can infect Win,mac, and Linux ( the same version ) is not three different releases.
can be embedded in a web, with any flash movie to distract, it is made in java

we never release it to public ... it was an experiment.
is now ( 14 month later) undetected, and don't need interaction with the user, just a java sign.

so, it is posible, and your brain, your common sense, is not a realy good answer...
we can use tunneling to made the reverse connection under any open port in your PC including 80

so, we are all nude.

Even if it's embedded unless you're giving java and flash permission to access pretty much everything and trust any java certificate I doubt it would infect a system, personally I don't give any Java applet permission to run without authorization. As long as you keep your system secure you can avoid things like this without the need for security software.

Do fish get fleas?

Not the effect you were going for, but yeah they actually can: http://aquariumworld.20m.com/fishfleas1.htm

Spanked


I as well had to take sometime to realize that there aren't many dangers in the Mac world. Couldn't wrap my brain around it after using Windows since 3.11 (15 some years ago).

Hello.

I'm also from the disease ridden world of PC.

Mac seems plenty secure if you're careful. As stated, use your brain.

Here's a neat little utility I like: http://www.obdev.at/products/littlesnitch/index.html

It's called "Little Snitch". It can give your brain another set of eyes!
All it does is to monitor everything going in and especially OUT on your computer, and stops it until you give your permission.
It's amazing what kind of stuff it intercepts. It lets you know exactly what programs attempt to "phone home" without your knowledge.
It also has a neat little bandwidth meter that gives an approximation of network traffic.

Keri

firewall should be used

I agree, firewall should be sufficient. I used to have Symantec Antivirus and my system was working slow, I uninstalled because I really don't need it, we are in a mac not in windows

I think the question is not "if" but "when." Proof of concept viruses and trojans for osx have already been created so it is possible and if the authors of such things really wanted to, there is nothing to stop them from doing so. They have chosen to target their efforts on Vista and Windows XP, likely because the Vista and XP have a more Trojan, Virus. worm friendly code and likely because the target audience is larger, which ensures the greatest impact. Here is something to ponder, if Macs become more popular and authors of malcious code increasingly begin to target mac users, how is Apple going to respond and how quickly are they going to respond to control the damage. Remember, Apple does not have the experience that Microsoft has acquired over time dealing with such threats and quickly patching vulnerabilities. It is going to be interesting to see since this will be virgin territory for Apple and likely will entail a huge learning curve. And with that, I leave you with these two interesting articles.
http://www.macobserver.com/article/2005/03/23.4.shtml
http://blog.washingtonpost.com/securityfix...in_60_seco.html

+1 for Little Snitch. I use it on all three of my machines.

Yay! we are all nude!!

But seriously though, if you are dual booting with windows, be careful i recently booted into vista after about a month and spent almost all day cleaning up viruses, which, though not a threat to OSX, managed to f**k up vista

i have heard about this virus
the most interesting virus ever -http://in.youtube.com/watch?v=qB_K66mrZi4

Agreed with the post above, Its not "if" but really a "when". The real question (also posted above) is how quickly will apple deal with the issue once found.

In the meantime though, Enjoy the freedom of not having to worry about anti-virus software. (unless you use Bootcamp or VMware/Paralells ... Then you need some for that side of things. Recommend Kaspersky!)

i think so, why would there be mac versions of antivirus software if there are no viruses.

there usually is spyware/trogans/virus etc. but Apple sooner or later fixes them in Apple Software update without you even knowing it existed.

Well... Apparently things are changing...

Apple says yes to antivirus software

And quoting Apple support: