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Anti-Virus?
- Thread starter jpeso2525
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My Safari browser in OS X 10.4 got demolished by a virus from an online community website similar to this, but on another interest topic, so anti-virus, these days, is a great idea, no matter what.
The days of not worrying about viruses because you have a mac, are over.
That being said, a PC running Windows is still a far larger and more visible target.
The days of not worrying about viruses because you have a mac, are over.
That being said, a PC running Windows is still a far larger and more visible target.
^ however the OP said VMware Fusion, not Pc running windows. But yes, essentially it is a Windows computer, it does act like one, hardware/software wise. get norton or something for it.
I have never had much luck when it came down to Anti-Virus software on PCs, but I would suggest that you do get some form of Anti-Virus for it, and that you stay away from Norton Anti-Virus, it slowed down every PC that I have installed it on, and when it did come down to finding viruses or spyware, it was not very effective at removing them.
Can you explain this further... a virus demolished Safari??
Woof, Woof – Dawg
Being an Apple and PC warranty tech, and then a self employed tech for eight years, I never thought this could happen. I totally thought it was close to impossible to have a working virus on the net that could take out OS X or any of the apps.
Well, it has been done.
Back in the day when I started as a tech, Windows 95/98, were easy to mess up with a virus, but NT, very similar in some ways to OS X in build with a tough kernel, was not being hit with viruses. As the bad guys cracked NT and then XP, it was only going to be a matter of time before any UNIX or UNIX like OS could be targeted.
The saving grace of Apple all these years is that our computers are a small share of the market and thus an unattractive target. But things are changing and the best in brightest of virus writers can do harm to OS X. Safari has had some good patches, which I never got around to putting in.
Anyway, I prefer Firefox and Opera since they are low on the radar. It's certainly much better than when I had a PC with Interent Explorer.
^^
Understood, but that still doesn't really explain your claim that an online virus demolished Safari... can you elaborate further, what exactly happened and how
Woof, Woof Dawg
Understood, but that still doesn't really explain your claim that an online virus demolished Safari... can you elaborate further, what exactly happened and how
Woof, Woof Dawg
^^
Understood, but that still doesn't really explain your claim that an online virus demolished Safari... can you elaborate further, what exactly happened and how
Woof, Woof – Dawg
Safari worked without any major problems for me for many years. Then I go to this "educational" site actually run by high school kids regarding college prep and grad school issues and admittance. Sounds good enough, and interesting, right?
Stupidly, I click on a banner ad from that site directly related to that site. Instantly, Safari crashes. From then on, every time I open Safari, it quits "unexpectedly" within a few minutes. The next day, Safari won't open. The next day after that, it is incredibly slow and when it opens it quits "unexpectedly" over and over again.
I can't find another reason this would happen since I only visited Macrumors and this "educational" prep site.
Basically, this issue pissed me off. I looked into Safari viruses on Google and looked at 51 pages on the issue, and there are some, but not many. I was unlucky.
That being said, Macs are safer than PCs.
Again Macs are safer than PCs.
And if I have to say it again, Macs are safer than PCs.
In no way am I saying Macs are weak or vulnerable.
Did I mention Macs are safer than PCs?
Macs are safer than PCs.
Macs are safer than PCs.
I hope I made a point.
We are in 2008 and even though Mac viruses are EXTREMELY rare, they are out there.
Today I installed XP Pro on a virtual machine. Then I proceeded to gleefully demolish it by loading it with viruses until it was unusable.
It removed taskmgr.exe, control.exe, and cmd.exe, and popped up alerts saying "Someone's trying to infect your PC with malicious spyware!" Durrrrr.
I do this periodically to remind myself why I don't use Windows anymore.
It removed taskmgr.exe, control.exe, and cmd.exe, and popped up alerts saying "Someone's trying to infect your PC with malicious spyware!" Durrrrr.
I do this periodically to remind myself why I don't use Windows anymore.
So you assume it's a virus because you can't think of an
alternative? It couldn't be a bug, perhaps?
Don't get me wrong - you might have a virus. But you're so
wishy-washy with the details, I'm not convinced yet. If you
start coming up with better evidence, then I will believe you.
That was my first course of action.
I used my knowledge as a techie, PhD graduate student in Computer Network Engineering at the University of California, and my experience as a networking teacher to rule everything out I could.
If anybody knows that any techie type person has blind spots, it is me. My buddy is a PhD Programming Teacher and CompTIA A+ Computer Hardware department head at his college and even though he knew a ton of stuff, from the Widows 98 days all the way back to assembly language and the mathematics behind computing pre-math co-processors, he didn't know XP and NT and kernel based operating systems so he would bring his machine to me even though I was merely his student.
My weakness is in Applications Programming and yes, there could certainly be an initial bug in Safari itself straight from Apple.
What I am going to do for some time, as I have been, is using Firefox and Opera, as they have been stable so far, avoid known dangerous sites/banner ads, keep up to date on viruses, and then reinstall Safari.
If Safari works rather well and doesn't quit over and over, and, I don't go to questionable sites or open questionable e-mail, then I could be pretty confident that Safari didn't have an inherent bug in its original code.
If I then go back to the site(s) in question, where there are admittedly fans of the magazine 2600-Hacker Quarterly, and Safari dies on me over and over, then I can pretty much peg them and simply not visit them anymore.
I will take advice from anybody, with any level of experience on Safari, because there is far too much to know, from all the possible scenarios of why something goes bad, down to the very code that drives that application.
The days of thinking Macs don't get viruses are gone for me. And only in a relational sense could one say that Macs don't get viruses, when comparing it to a Microsoft Windows operating system.
Excellent point. My wishy washyness is my complete lack of knowledge in Applications Programming. See my above post and chime in and help if you can.
I certainly hope it was my stupidity for visiting a very well known troll site instead of Safari being "that" unstable.
I got so pissed off since I know these teenage hackers could kick my butt, and my CCIE and PhD buddies any day of the week. I am older and had to learn about computers via Physics and Higher graduate level math. But these teenage hackers learned to code before they knew how to ride a bike.
While the "kids" have the most talent, online and in my native Silicon Valley, they lack the judgment of us adults who have to work with computers and know just how unproductive a virus can be to a company we work for or our own companies.
That being said, I was a teenage punk, too, but the only things we had were water balloons, fire crackers, and prank calls. Today's kids have the internet which is like one huge prank call, and in some cases, a way to have fun and make money on the side.
And for you teenage members here, I am not condoning moving from hacker to criminal.
It always comes as an unpleasant surprise to learn that Apple can be vulnerable to virus attacks, but 63dot is right; they are out there, even if rare. However, the reputation for security that Apple has was one of my main reasons for switching.
I agree with JML42691 that Norton takes up a fair bit of space (and isn't exactly superb) and with Consultant that AVG is not bad. My own favourite, in the days when I had Windows was McAfee; it was about the most robust anti-virus, anti-spyware, anti-spam package I could find, and it did drastically reduce (but not eliminate entirely) unwanted attacks and unwelcome visitors. In any case, I'd certainly welcome any advice about appropriate anti-spam/virus/spyware for Apple.
Re wishy-washyness, 63dot is quite right to point out that not all of us (self very much included) are expert in technical and programming matters; what we have in common is that most of us, are, indeed, fairly ardent Apple fans, but that is a different matter entirely. Anyway, one of the reasons for the forum is to ask questions, and seek solutions to problems. Cheers.
MBP 15.4", 2.4 ghz, 2 GB RAM, 160 HDD; iPod classic 30 GB
I agree with JML42691 that Norton takes up a fair bit of space (and isn't exactly superb) and with Consultant that AVG is not bad. My own favourite, in the days when I had Windows was McAfee; it was about the most robust anti-virus, anti-spyware, anti-spam package I could find, and it did drastically reduce (but not eliminate entirely) unwanted attacks and unwelcome visitors. In any case, I'd certainly welcome any advice about appropriate anti-spam/virus/spyware for Apple.
Re wishy-washyness, 63dot is quite right to point out that not all of us (self very much included) are expert in technical and programming matters; what we have in common is that most of us, are, indeed, fairly ardent Apple fans, but that is a different matter entirely. Anyway, one of the reasons for the forum is to ask questions, and seek solutions to problems. Cheers.
MBP 15.4", 2.4 ghz, 2 GB RAM, 160 HDD; iPod classic 30 GB
At the risk of sounding like a complete fool, could you explain what the actual difference is in this context? Obviously, I know the original story the term derives from, and the technical application probably applies the general principle, but still; there is a lot in this area I am yet ignorant about. Thanks in advance from a grateful teacher who spends a lot of time still learning. Cheers.
Maybe I got a trojan, or a worm. Anyway, what is the best way from getting that from a website.
Thanks in advance.
What i think he means is that context is for a Trojan to install you have to give it permission ( user error ) & at present their are no known Viruses in the wild that affect OS X ( not possible ) If that's wrong I'm sure he'll say otherwise