Can I get a virus from clicking on a link?

Raymond Lin · 1 Mar 2013 at 17:31

A client sent me an email last night, or so I thought, I clicked on the link and it was some random website. I closed the page and deleted the email thinking it was just spam. Her account or computer clearly has a Trojan or virus but in terms of OSX, can a virus get to me that way?

I didn't install or download any dmg files if that helps.

Johnny|lucidcomposure · 1 Mar 2013 at 20:23

You should be fine.

Are you new to Mac Ray? You seem to ask a lot of newish questions? The one about the whole spaces in the other thread shocked me!?

Raymond Lin · 1 Mar 2013 at 20:28

Johnny|lucidcomposure said:
You should be fine.

Are you new to Mac Ray? You seem to ask a lot of newish questions? The one about the whole spaces in the other thread shocked me!?

I know I should be fine but i am just double checking.

and...

3 years and 8 months ! :eek:

teenwolf · 1 Mar 2013 at 20:29

run malwarebytes just to be sure.

uniQ · 1 Mar 2013 at 22:33

Burn it with fire.

Amp34 · 17 Mar 2013 at 16:24

You'll probably be fine. Unless you're running windows XP with IE6 then you'll probably have to physically download and install something anyway.

theheyes · 17 Mar 2013 at 19:28

Yes you can, absolutely. And you wouldn't necessarily have to download and run anything.

I would say the odds of you picking up anything are quite slim in this instance, though.

Fillado · 17 Mar 2013 at 21:07

The recent (very limited) security breach at Apple (and Facebook etc.) was done via a Java exploit by just visiting a website.

So yes it's possible. Extremely unlikely but possible.

KIA · 18 Mar 2013 at 09:37

Yes, it's possible.

Always use the latest version of OSX (auto updates should be enabled by default). Never install Java unless you really need it.