[tether]

last time i asked this question six or eight months back, i was told there were no viruses about that affect the mac. is this still the case?

[KeyLimePi]

you're still safe.

[turtle777]

Case closed. Movin' right along.

-t

[Millennium]

Still true, unless you count Word macro viruses. Even those, though, are severely limited in the damage they can do compared to Windows machines.

There was, at one point, someone who claimed to have written a worm for the Mac by exploiting certain security holes. He wrote papers on the holes he exploited, and his theories seem sound enough. However, he never released the worm into the wild, so nobody knows if it ever worked.

[ghporter]

I believe that it is just a matter of time. Smugness about the current lack of viruses that attack Macs will (not may, WILL) cause a huge number of people a lot of grief.

[Chuckit]

People have been saying that for years. You may as well say smugness about the sun not going supernova tomorrow will cause a huge number of people a lot of grief.

Okay, there may be a virus problem on the Mac in the future, even the near future. But what the hell am I supposed to do now to protect myself? Even if I bought antivirus software now, it would not protect me against these Futureviruses any more than if I bought it once a threat actually appeared. Common sense is required, yes, but I don't think there's a whole lot of harm smugness can do when faced with a menace that isn't even on the radar.

[Pendergast]

I have used Macintoshes since the first Macintosh.

I have been infected twice; the "Earth Day" virus, and some other one.

Never have I been infected by one again since then.

Tip: no Microsoft products.

[ghporter]

Originally Posted by Chuckit

People have been saying that for years. You may as well say smugness about the sun not going supernova tomorrow will cause a huge number of people a lot of grief.

Okay, there may be a virus problem on the Mac in the future, even the near future. But what the hell am I supposed to do now to protect myself? Even if I bought antivirus software now, it would not protect me against these Futureviruses any more than if I bought it once a threat actually appeared. Common sense is required, yes, but I don't think there's a whole lot of harm smugness can do when faced with a menace that isn't even on the radar.

With the rising market penetration of Macs, particularly in business settings, it's only a matter of time until some hot-shot code-kid takes a shot at Macs for real. The best antivirus software is adaptive enough to catch virus by their signatures, and can be updated with new signatures as new viruses show up.

I'm using my PC right now (my wife has the iBook at the moment), and I haven't had any virus problems because I use a good antivirus package and keep it up to date. All I had to do was install the program and tell it when I wanted it to update itself. There is no reason that a Mac antivirus program would be any harder to use than a PC program-and if Apple gets into the business when they release the x86 Macs, there's every reason to believe that it will be significantly simpler.

[ghporter]

Originally Posted by Chuckit

People have been saying that for years. You may as well say smugness about the sun not going supernova tomorrow will cause a huge number of people a lot of grief.

Okay, there may be a virus problem on the Mac in the future, even the near future. But what the hell am I supposed to do now to protect myself? Even if I bought antivirus software now, it would not protect me against these Futureviruses any more than if I bought it once a threat actually appeared. Common sense is required, yes, but I don't think there's a whole lot of harm smugness can do when faced with a menace that isn't even on the radar.

With the rising market penetration of Macs, particularly in business settings, it's only a matter of time until some hot-shot code-kid takes a shot at Macs for real. The best antivirus software is adaptive enough to catch virus by their signatures, and can be updated with new signatures as new viruses show up.

The harm being smug can do is what happens when a virus breaks cover and you're caught unprotected. Without ANY virus protection, you could easily be in a situation where your computer is rendered useless, or worse, turned into a zombie.

The only, Only, ONLY reason there aren't a bunch of viruses that attack Macs right now is that the bad guys don't think they'll get enough jolies out of hurting Macs and Mac users. With more and more people using Macs, that could change overnight. The platform is not inherently immune, though it's built more robustly and has few of the arcane interdependencies that make Windows a prime target for viruses, but there are still holes out there, waiting for someone to find them.

Protecting yourself from viruses means one thing: using a reliable antivirus program. I'm using my PC right now (my wife has the iBook at the moment), and I haven't had any virus problems (at all, zip-stop, NEVER on this or any other home machine) because I use a good antivirus package and keep it up to date. All I had to do was install the program and tell it when I wanted it to update itself. There is no reason that a Mac antivirus program would be any harder to use than a PC program-and if Apple gets into the business when they release the x86 Macs, there's every reason to believe that it will be significantly simpler.

[Chuckit]

Originally Posted by ghporter

The best antivirus software is adaptive enough to catch virus by their signatures, and can be updated with new signatures as new viruses show up.

Yes, but (unless I'm just betraying extreme ignorance of how smart the AV folks are) they won't have the signatures until after the viruses have shown up, so there's little point in buying the software now since they don't yet protect you from these viruses we're hypothesizing.

Originally Posted by ghporter

All I had to do was install the program and tell it when I wanted it to update itself.

Really? Which product is it where you don't have to pay an annoying monthly/yearly fee to keep the updates coming? Because that would rule out almost all of them, and I don't feel like paying the Norton Tax to protect myself from something that isn't real.

If a virus did come out for Mac, it would be big news and people would rush to buy the first suite that could fight it. Right now, it's an unnecessary complication and, even worse, a money sink that doesn't actually contain any measures to protect you yet.

[ghporter]

Originally Posted by Chuckit

Yes, but (unless I'm just betraying extreme ignorance of how smart the AV folks are) they won't have the signatures until after the viruses have shown up, so there's little point in buying the software now since they don't yet protect you from these viruses we're hypothesizing.


Really? Which product is it where you don't have to pay an annoying monthly/yearly fee to keep the updates coming? Because that would rule out almost all of them, and I don't feel like paying the Norton Tax to protect myself from something that isn't real.

If a virus did come out for Mac, it would be big news and people would rush to buy the first suite that could fight it. Right now, it's an unnecessary complication and, even worse, a money sink that doesn't actually contain any measures to protect you yet.

Amazingly enough, the Windows world does quite well with the "they don't have the signature until it shows up" model. The odds are that a virus will show up on a major corporate network before it trickles down to independent users, and most of the major corporations are VERY interested in keeping things out, so they look at everything coming into their nets.

I use Symantec (NOT Norton) Antivirus and Client Security on my PCs, and the annual fee for an update subscription is about $5. We also use Symantec AV on our iBook (just to be good neighbors and keep from spreading crap that might come in through anemail) and the subscription fee for that is also $5.

I look at AV software like fire insurance. If I don't have a fire, was my insurance worth it? In peace of mind, it sure is!