MAC & Virus

[silver987]

I have a friend that just purchased a MAC laptop and he says he doesn't need virus protection, that MAC's are not vulnerable. I personally find this a little naive. Is there any truth to this?

Wayne T

 

[vacunita]

Its pretty close. While Mac's can get virii. The amount of Mac compatible virii out there is so small, its almost negligible.

I'm sure its not a bad idea to have Antivirus on a Mac, but Mac can happily do without as long as you don't visit shady red light district sites aimed directly at Macs.

Here's an interesting article on the subject.

http://gigaom.com/apple/antivirus-software-on-your-mac-yes-or-no/

----------------------------------
Phil AKA Vacunita
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Ignorance is not necessarily Bliss, case in point:
Unknown has caused an Unknown Error on Unknown and must be shutdown to prevent damage to Unknown.

Behind the Web, Tips and Tricks for Web Development.

http://behindtheweb.blogspot.com/

 

[BadBigBen]

While it is true, that Mac's suffer a whole lot less than Windows machines, they are nevertheless, still subjected to other types of exploits and vulnerabilities...

believing that just by using a MAC would be enough, it's kinda like saying, "Hey, I live on an island, so there is no need to lock my front door." - until the day, when a crook gets washed ashore, who steals everything from ya, by then it is TOO late.

just some info:

http://www.makeuseof.com/tag/protect-mac-sophos-antivirus-free/

2008
Mac OS X Trojan reported in the wild

http://news.cnet.com/8301-10789_3-9973703-57.html

2009
Pirated iWork Software Infects Macs With Trojan Horse

http://voices.washingtonpost.com/securityfix/2009/01/pirated_iwork_software_infects.html

iAntiVirus Threat list for OSX

http://www.iantivirus.com/threats/

MacScan Detection List

http://macscan.securemac.com/spyware-list/

Ben
"If it works don't fix it! If it doesn't use a sledgehammer..."
How to ask a question, when posting them to a professional forum.
Only ask questions with yes/no answers if you want "yes" or "no"

 

[Sympology]

No No No No No...

This is utter crap peddled by the fanboys.

Unix can get infected.
Linux can get Infected
Mac's can get infected.

Try searching for Adobe Mac Exploit for an example.

Yes it's required less, but it is still required. But as Mac's become more popular, watch the number of attacks become more prevelant.
Also note that Apple are very slow to patch, so any falw found in the wild may be around for some time.



Robert Wilensky:
We've all heard that a million monkeys banging on a million typewriters will eventually reproduce the entire works of Shakespeare. Now, thanks to the Internet, we know this is not true.