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headbirth · Mar 9, 2006, 10:45 AM

Hi,

Just curious. Do sites like MacUpdate and VersionTracker scan the downloads for trojans, viruses, etc...? I realize their not hosting the files, but do they hold their uploaders liable? Do they cheeck any of the files themselves?

Just curious if you can rely on them as a safe download site.

Morpheus · Mar 11, 2006, 02:40 AM

That's something that would interest me as well.

bowwowman · Mar 11, 2006, 03:07 AM

Surely they do, but I have been getting apps from versiontracker for over 8 years and have never had ANY problems whatsoever.......

headbirth · Mar 11, 2006, 06:32 AM

I haven't had any problems with them over the years either.

It might be nice if the posted something on their site concering this.

TETENAL · Mar 11, 2006, 06:48 AM

Those websites are not liable for the software they link to. And they can't possibly check it all. Even if they could, the software maker could change it any time after it has been posted.

CharlesS · Mar 11, 2006, 10:20 AM

I'm sure that if someone reported to them that a software they linked to was a virus, they'd delete it. Beyond that, though, I don't know if they screen things before putting them on or not.

The thing is, I think that Info-Mac used to scan incoming files for viruses when they posted them. Of course, one day someone uploaded that "Graphic Converter" virus, which hadn't yet been encountered by the Mac community and subsequently wasn't in any of the virus definition files, so it got through anyway. So the moral is, you can't really ever trust anything 100% just because it came from a popular download site. You should be careful about all software unless you trust the author that the software actually comes from.