"[...] he outta be chopped into itty, bitty pieces and buried alive."
In that order? That might be a bit tricky. Or is there an app for that?
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Can a Mac get PC Viruses?
- Thread starter Aramyth
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In that order? That might be a bit tricky. Or is there an app for that?
So then why do people say that Macs don't need anti virus protection?
Because they can't actually be infected with it. Think of it like those viruses that affect one species but not another. Macs are merely a HOST for the virus, they don't actually get it, but they can pass it along to PCs.
why does it matter if you pass on viruses to pc people? they stupid for not having a mac
I have 2 valid arguments for you:
1. DERP!
2. try installing .Net Framework and then set up crysis, after that go into seriallz.com and search for crysis crack. there youll get a crack...*cough*virus*cough* does that work? no? gee i wonder why. DERP!
1. DERP!
2. try installing .Net Framework and then set up crysis, after that go into seriallz.com and search for crysis crack. there youll get a crack...*cough*virus*cough* does that work? no? gee i wonder why. DERP!
No. . . no they're not. At best you could have an infected .exe file which you copy over to a windows machine and run there. They are NOT however "hosts" for worms which then use your machine as a launching point to infect windows computers on the network. The worm would have to be able to RUN on your machine, which it obviously can't since its not written for OS X.
By "pass along" they mean you might accidentally send them the file in an email or on a disk, not that the virus itself will jump from your computer to a PC.
Name one! Just one! You can't, because there is no virus in the wild that runs on Mac OS X. None. You are seriously misinformed.
Again, you are seriously misinformed. Do you have ANY idea how many tens or hundreds of millions of Macs are in use, if they have even 5% market share? That argument doesn't hold water. It's a very old, very lame argument, used by those who can't come up with a logical explanation why there are no viruses for Mac OS X.
There are trojans, but those are a different animal. The user has to actively install a trojan, which involves entering their administrative password. A little common sense and careful thought is all you need to protect from trojans.
The 1st Mac Virus
The 1st Mac Virus hasn't been written. Executable files are Windohs problem. My mac had one once, questionable practices on my part, the Mac informed me that it was a corrupted file and should it put it in the TRASH for me? All I had to do was click YES.
I run Win XP on paralells without virus protection. Have never put Virus protection on my emulated OSs. Is that bad?
The 1st Mac Virus hasn't been written. Executable files are Windohs problem. My mac had one once, questionable practices on my part, the Mac informed me that it was a corrupted file and should it put it in the TRASH for me? All I had to do was click YES.
I run Win XP on paralells without virus protection. Have never put Virus protection on my emulated OSs. Is that bad?
I wonder about this. It sounds to good to be true, and yet I've never had a virus on a Mac, and I don't know anyone who has.
However, every PC user I've talked to--including my girlfriend right before her laptop died--claim they're innundated with viruses just about every time they use the internet.
Do Mac viruses exist, or are they just not very prevalent?
Mac OS X viruses do not exist.
Yes, that's bad. While Mac OS X can't be infected by a virus, Windows certainly can, even if it's running on Boot Camp on a Mac. Try AVG for Windows virus protection. It's free and very effective.
Thanks for all the replies. I've read them all.
To my understanding then:
1) There are no viruses for Macs.
2) There are trojans for Macs; but easy to avoid due to having to enter your admin password.
3) My Mac can't actually be a "host" to PC viruses; accidentally pass on viruses. But it could pass on a .exe file that is a virus, in say, something like an e-mail.
4) Run virus protection on your Windows partition whether it's Parallels or Boot Camp.
Got it.
To my understanding then:
1) There are no viruses for Macs.
2) There are trojans for Macs; but easy to avoid due to having to enter your admin password.
3) My Mac can't actually be a "host" to PC viruses; accidentally pass on viruses. But it could pass on a .exe file that is a virus, in say, something like an e-mail.
4) Run virus protection on your Windows partition whether it's Parallels or Boot Camp.
Got it.
There's no need for that if you don't connect to the internet, save snapshots of your system, or don't mind reinstalling from time to time. Personally, I fall into all three categories.
I say "differently". Since you called anyone disagreeing with you a moron, I felt free to mark all non-factual mistakes in your post in bold.
Not quite correct. There are no MacOS X viruses, but there were viruses in the late '80s that could infect Macintosh computers with Motorola 680x0 processors running MacOS 6 or MacOS 7. They died out when Apple switched from Motorola 68040 processors to the first PowerPC processor.
That's if an infected file resides on the mac. What I thought they were talking about was you plugging in a drive, the virus jumps off, stays on your mac, then jumps back on to another device all by itsself without a user moving an infected file from one device to another.
That's not possible. Any program that would run on Windows will not run on Mac OS X, so no virus can "jump" without user assistance from Windows to Mac OS X or vice versa.
Most people only virtualize/dual-boot to run applications that don't work on the Mac side. Why would you dual-boot just so you could use Internet Explorer or something? That is, web design testing aside.
Article about the "first ever mac virus." It was discovered in 2006: http://www.sophos.com/pressoffice/news/articles/2006/02/macosxleap.html
A mac is just like any other computer, in that it can be programmed, and yes, these programs can be made to do bad things.
EDIT: So I guess Mac can claim that it has no viruses because it makes a very subtle distinction between viruses and trojan horses. This seems silly to me. The fact of the matter is that there exist programs for both Mac and PC than can harm your computer if run. I guess the difference is that a 'trojan' you have to run yourself, whereas a 'virus' will infect your computer without your knowledge. I guess Mac users say that trojans don't matter because only dumb people will get trojans
If you want to play that game PC users could always say: Viruses, malware, etc don't matter because only dumb people get those. I have two PCs and have never had a virus. Free virus scan software, and being on top of updates is all it takes to keep my PCs virus free.
A mac is just like any other computer, in that it can be programmed, and yes, these programs can be made to do bad things.
EDIT: So I guess Mac can claim that it has no viruses because it makes a very subtle distinction between viruses and trojan horses. This seems silly to me. The fact of the matter is that there exist programs for both Mac and PC than can harm your computer if run. I guess the difference is that a 'trojan' you have to run yourself, whereas a 'virus' will infect your computer without your knowledge. I guess Mac users say that trojans don't matter because only dumb people will get trojans
If you want to play that game PC users could always say: Viruses, malware, etc don't matter because only dumb people get those. I have two PCs and have never had a virus. Free virus scan software, and being on top of updates is all it takes to keep my PCs virus free.
^ Yeah, I can see that as a real advantage Mac has over PC, but I still think its misleading when Apple claims that Macs have no viruses or malware. It makes it sound like you can download anything you want, and not have to worry about your data, which really isn't the case. You still have to be careful, whether you're running a Mac or PC, and not open attachments from strangers, download random crap, etc.
The distinction between a virus and a trojan isn't a subtle one. It's the difference between something that propagates itself without user intervention and something that requires the user to actively do something to install and run it. Some prudent thought and care is all that is required to protect against trojans.
The OSX/Leap A worm isn't a virus:
No one claims that Macs aren't susceptible to malware, which includes viruses, trojans and worms. The claim, which is factual, is that there is NO VIRUS that runs on Mac OS X. You can download anything you want. You just have to be careful what you install, which usually requires entering your administrative password.