[JBytes]

I hope I didn't scare you folks with the alarming subject title. Here's the dilemma. A friend's brother uses Internet Explorer on her home G5 to access his work's web mail account, which is on a PC network [of course]. His account was suddenly disabled by the network Admin who claims that the G5 infected his PC network with a virus. I told my friend to tell her brother to tell this network "guru" that he's full of it. Before I give him a "friendly" call, I thought I'd bring up the subject here to get your valued opinions. Here's a little exchange between the Admin and the young man. All parties names have been changed [I think]. Sorry for the lengthy message!


The sister:

Zak [the brother],
When you have a chance, can you please ask Mr. Admin to get a bit more specific? Is there a virus name or a specific action that keeps occurring. It might also be helpful to let him know that I own a Mac G5...


Mr. Admin: [After the above was forwarded to him][

Zak,
Have you used that PC to access your web-based e-mail?


To which Zak replied:

Hey Mr. Admin,
I have used several PC’s to access my web email. My sister’s computer is a “Mac” but I also use PC’s at my schools computer lab.
Look Mr. Admin, I don’t know much about computers, but what I do know is that not having access to my email has been quite frustrating. If there is any information you could share about this problem to help solve it as soon as possible that would be greatly appreciated. I really need to have my web email access reactivated.


Mr. Admin fired back:

Zak,
I can tell you that over the course of one month, your sister’s computer “Goal-Trigger's-Computer” (MAC or whatever platform is used) has attempted to access your account and guess your password more than 500 times. The only course of action is for your sister to take the Mac to a professional for virus, worm, and hijack software removal. There is nothing I can do from my end but it is my responsibility to defend the company network from security attacks.
I understand your frustration and as soon as that PC is cleaned I will open your account back up and check that the attacks do not happen again.

------------ End of exchange -----------


Is the above scenario possible?

Thanks,
--JBytes

[discotronic]

There are zero viruses in the wild for OSX unless something has changed in the last few days. If there where a virus for OSX I am fairly certain that it would be all over every tech news site on the planet.

It is possible to pass a virus through a file or email attachment coming from your Mac. As far as a virus actually working on a Mac and trying to do anything malicious I would say the odds are 1 in (insert extremely high number here).

Sounds to me like the Network Admin is suffering from a severe case of ignorance. Without knowing more that is the only thing I can come up with.

[Wiskedjak]

It doesn't sound like it necessarily has to be a virus. The admin said that you sister's computer tried to access your account 500 times in the course of one month. Is there anything on that computer set up to automatically check your email? If so, could it possibly have the wrong password?

[ghporter]

It sounds to me more like someone has hijacked your sister's login to that server, and is trying to break into your mail. The Admin is full of bull-and completely clueless about the possibility of transmitting viruses from PCs to Macs and vice versa, or (and what I think he really meant) about the existence of any malware that would automatically try to break into some other user's mail account.

It's hacking, not a virus. Your sister should go to the administrator, prove she's the legit user of her account, and change EVERYTHING she can, particularly the password. She should do this NOW.