OSX Sercurity

As others have said, the current risk to the OSX OS is pretty much zero, but thats not a reason not to use protection. Some freebie like ClamXav would do, symantec used to have a version for OSX also obviously at a cost.
 
mortals said:
I just read the whole of the thread and laughed at the bickering :D

I think a moderator should maybe put their mark on this subject.
There are osx virus's which is why people are annoyed that some mac users deny that fact.
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It was just AJUK who stated that there were no virii for OS X.

I assume his comment was 'dumbed down' for the OP – he was attempting to reassure the OP who openly admits he doesn't have a clue about the matter, and in turn, his concerned girlfriend who doesn't know about the OS X security situation. He could have gone in-depth and explained the intricices behind OS X security, the mindset of malware creators and scared the living daylights out of the OP and his girlfriend by citing one or two recorded OS X virii then following it up by stating that they are nothing to worry about and no one has ever been infected by them. He could have thrown around some jargon about VB macros and the importance of protecting Windows users by installing some strange open source firewall application.

Or he could just make the blunt, yet reassuringly apt real world statement that he did.

*av
 
Just to correct a pet hate of mine;

The plural of virus is viruses, there's no such word as virii in the dictionary and If you were going to make it a latin plural it would be vira not virii.
 
mortals said:
I just read the whole of the thread and laughed at the bickering :D

I think a moderator should maybe put their mark on this subject.
There are osx virus's which is why people are annoyed that some mac users deny that fact.

Whether you've seen or experienced them is another matter. The facts are that there are a lot of proof of concept virus's and some very real ones.
I know some people don't see them as a massive threat and in comparison to windows they aren't but perhaps people should stick to the facts instead of bickering :confused:

I don't have antivirus on osx, altho looking at some of the more recent proof of concept virii and the places certain security risks have been seen I am thinking of maybe installing antivirus.
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toolespin said:
Oh and a good link worth bookmarking:

http://www.clamxav.com/
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end of thread to be honest
 
Im not using my system cycles on my mac to protect some dumb ass windows users.

You do not need anti-virus on your mac, and you don't even need the firewall if your behind a hardware firewall.

I've never had a problem with my mac setup :D

Enjoy. :)
 
E1mo said:
I disagree. The mentality of people who write viruses is "What will get my virus the most attention?" And right now, with the rise of the Mac platform since the Intel switch, iPods, and Mac's reputation of being Virus free, a self-replicating Virus for the Mac platform would be an absolutely HUGE deal.
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Virus writers don't write for attention, or publicity. They write for only 2 things - power and money. If you had the ability to be able to take control of millions of PC's, some people would pay you a *lot* of money to be able to use them to send spam which, like it or not, makes a *lot* of money for those doing it.

Black hats don't invest hours/days/months doing something just so they can stand on a box and have their 5 minutes of fame. Doing that would only make any exploits be patched and would completely defeat the purpose of what they spent hours/days/months doing. Of course, some white hats could try and make a virus for OSX that was hugely effective and tell everyone, but there's not as much motivation for them. Given that the malicious software programmer is only interested about infecting as many machines as possible, going after OSX at the moment is fairly pointless and a waste of time. Hence, no serious viruses.

Mac users will be smug either way. Either Apple don't sell any macs, in which case there's the "We have no viruses, we're the best" line, or they sell loads in which case we get "We're selling loads! We're awesome!" line. Either one is tiring.
 
lol. mac and viruses? and macs getting infected? lol at yoo!

dont bother. no need, after all the macs ive seen in use, never seen one with a virus.
 
I may consider adding this to the sticky.

It seems everytime someone starts a thread about Anti-Virus on Mac it turns in to a flamewar :o
 
To be fair the vast majority of software publishers don't code for the Mac and it's 17 users world wide so why would Virus writers ;)
 
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Seeing as the two or three existing viruses are impotent is there any point in having a virus scanner? i.e. Will a current virus scanner offer any protection against viruses that are yet to be developed? I'm thinking no but I'm by no means an expert on this.
 
punky_munky said:
Seeing as the two or three existing viruses are impotent is there any point in having a virus scanner? i.e. Will a current virus scanner offer any protection against viruses that are yet to be developed? I'm thinking no but I'm by no means an expert on this.
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Yeah your right there is no point at the moment in having one in my opinion, just keep your system patched/up to date. The couple I linked have been patched against a while ago. I just don't like the statement mac people seem to think they are invulnerable :-) There is always a delay between when a new virus is released into the wild before the AV companies can update their signatures and detect it.
 
While I love my Mac, and do believe it is more secure than Windows, I am by no means blind to the fact that there are probably quite large holes in it that need to be plugged.

The Month Of Apple Bugs should help to stop the smugness that seems to come out of some Mac users arse's (as well as improving OS X security which can only be a positive thing)...
 
As with all my machines Mac/PC I am always overly cautious and backup my stuff. Even if my Mac wont be infected with something nasty for a while - I enjoy the feeling of being 'safe'.
 
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