How do I deal with viruses?

[testing toaster]

I had downloaded and used AVAST [anti-virus] for some time now. I have scanned for viruses before with everything turning out to be normal but then out of nowhere I get 8 viruses and 206 warnings today.

My mac is a Mac OS X and has no actual symptoms of a virus. It is acting perfectly fine, it's not taking a long time to load nor is it acting any differently since I have received my mac. I simply scanned my mac with AVAST and it tells me i have viruses.

I tried to 'delete' these viruses with no such luck. It simply tells me that '1 did not allow the operation' .These viruses come up as ; Tracur [Trj] on my screen.

I assume someone in my family must have downloaded these viruses through limewire or frostwire. Other than that I do not know how these viruses made got in my Mac.
Obviously I do not want these viruses to stay or corrupt any information on here. So instructions on how to properly deal with this problem is necessary for me. No one in my family has experiences with macs, or any kind of computers to be truthful, so specific [ as in step by step ] instructions on how I should handle this situation would help much more than a simple two word answer.

 

[Gav2k]

Step one trash avast
step two Do not downloa hacked software
step three breeth deep and say there are no current osx virus so I'm not wasting my time.

Step four all done!

 

[testing toaster]

no os x virus?
Guess that saves me time, thank you very much for this information

 

[old-wiz]

while there are no viruses for OSx, there are Trojans. If you download cracked software it can contain a trojan. When you install the cracked software you have to give your admin password and this allows the install to proceed and install not only the cracked software but also a trojan. If you download files that contain windows viruses, then avast could report that you are infected, even though windows viruses can not function in OSx.

 

[iBlue]

while there are no viruses for OSx, there are Trojans. If you download cracked software it can contain a trojan. When you install the cracked software you have to give your admin password and this allows the install to proceed and install not only the cracked software but also a trojan. If you download files that contain windows viruses, then avast could report that you are infected, even though windows viruses can not function in OSx.

^ This.


testing toaster - if you have family members that don't really know what they're doing using your computer, set them up their own user accounts and do not give those accounts admin access. This will prevent them from installing dodgy things on the mac. That is if you have not done this already.

 

[milton.sheaf]

How to deal with viruses on OSX? Give them a stern look, fart in their general direction, then give them the raspberry. That'll show em.

 

[patrick0brien]

-milton.sheaf

You forgot the all-important "unclog nose in general direction" step. Shame.