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I just installed Norton Antivirus for my Mac.

gilkisson said:
I'm not sure I can go along with that interpretation -- A virus, in order to be a virus, must traverse from computer to computer -- and a worm does the same thing, but directly, without intervention or carrier (email message, etc).
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hmm that is confusing. your saying that a virus goes from computer to computer WITH user interaction, and a worm goes WITHOUT interaction (from the user, via whatever means)?? right??

which is what i said...... so please verify - im not seeing us having a problem with this issue..

What did you manage to download, and what did it do (he asks curiously)?
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it automatically started downloading off a website, it was a dmg file, it had a very suspicious name of the dmg. luckily, i managed to hit the "stop" button before it finished downloading.. who knows what it would have done if it expanded itself. this was back in the Tiger days when programs on dmgs could run without being warned.

It's a fine hair to split, and we're playing semantics. Point being, pending receiving further light and knowledge, I stand pat - there are no true viruses (or worms) as of yet. That's not to say there's not malware, disguising itself as one thing while it is really evil.
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in all honesty, malware technically is a virus, a trojan horse, or a worm in any sense, so if you say there is malware, then there exist one of the three.

personally i believe that there are MOST definately mac viruses/worms/trojans roaming the internet, there HAS to be. but i have no proof (i cant visit every website :p), so you wont believe me.
 
63dot said:
Some years back, when I had 64 MB of RAM and a 185 MHz processor, the Norton slowed down my machine but that was my only complaint. But today anymore with most machines (Macs and PCs) with 2 gigs of RAM and dual Intel processors, I don't think most should notice any speed difference.
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That is if you use the same version that you used on your 185 MHz computer :p
 
DoFoT9 said:
it automatically started downloading off a website, it was a dmg file, it had a very suspicious name of the dmg. luckily, i managed to hit the "stop" button before it finished downloading.. who knows what it would have done if it expanded itself. this was back in the Tiger days when programs on dmgs could run without being warned.
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Oh, I see. Now, I'm not meaning to sound *too* sarcastic here, but... you were downloading a dmg file from a questionable website, but killed the download before the odd-named file could execute. From that, you conclude it must have been a virus or contained a virus?
 
gilkisson said:
Oh, I see. Now, I'm not meaning to sound *too* sarcastic here, but... you were downloading a dmg file from a questionable website, but killed the download before the odd-named file could execute. From that, you conclude it must have been a virus or contained a virus?
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very sarcastic :p

it was from a pr0n site, the download was not meant to happen! it simply started downloading once the page started loading. that is why i perceived it as being some sort of threat to my computer, especially since it was a dmg.
 
DoFoT9 said:
very sarcastic :p

it was from a pr0n site, the download was not meant to happen! it simply started downloading once the page started loading. that is why i perceived it as being some sort of threat to my computer, especially since it was a dmg.
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Well, see, there you are. Being from a pr0n site, sure, you were right in suspecting the contents of that file. Actually, if the pornmasters were clever enough to detect your browser and OS and offer up a DMG file... that alone is odd. Still, very possible it was some form of malware (being something you didn't want, and up to no good) -- but that does not a virus make.

And seriously, I didn't mean to sound *that* sarcastic...
 
Norton thinks McAfee is a virus. They would constantly attack eachother and ask me if I wanted the other one removed. When I was installing something on the PC, a window popped up telling me Norton stopped the install due to questionable circumstances. I deleted Norton waaaay before that happened. I think I'll stick with McAfee. It hasn't done anything too terribbly bad. In conclusion, I always delete Norton off any new PCs my parents buy. For some reason all the computers they buy are infested with poopie.
 
gilkisson said:
Well, see, there you are. Being from a pr0n site, sure, you were right in suspecting the contents of that file. Actually, if the pornmasters were clever enough to detect your browser and OS and offer up a DMG file... that alone is odd. Still, very possible it was some form of malware (being something you didn't want, and up to no good) -- but that does not a virus make.

And seriously, I didn't mean to sound *that* sarcastic...
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of course i was right in suspecting the contents! because there was program or some sort of malware in there! in all seriousness, i wouldnt have worried about it downloading if i didnt think it would harm the computer. what else would it have been? anything non 'harmful' wouldnt have been dmg'd.

its not that hard to find out what OS/version of internet browser you are running :rolleyes:

well its either a virus, trojan, or worm -- none of them seem very nice to me :cool:
 
gilkisson said:
Well, see, there you are. Being from a pr0n site, sure, you were right in suspecting the contents of that file. Actually, if the pornmasters were clever enough to detect your browser and OS and offer up a DMG file... that alone is odd. Still, very possible it was some form of malware (being something you didn't want, and up to no good) -- but that does not a virus make.

And seriously, I didn't mean to sound *that* sarcastic...
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...but a DMG file alone isn't going to infect your computer. And automatic downloads are something all web browsers allow.

This isn't at all a virus.
 
goMac said:
...but a DMG file alone isn't going to infect your computer. And automatic downloads are something all web browsers allow.

This isn't at all a virus.
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how do you know?? where you here with me when it automatically started downloading and extracting itself???

the chance of it being a virus is still there, but it probably was some sort of spyware or something.
 
Boesky said:
Good choice? Im not taking any chances. Regardless of what Apple says.
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Norton is bloated, on any platform. There are some better choices out there. It is good to be cautious, there are many unresolved known exploits for OS X - just not many script kiddies capitalizing on them yet.
 
applebook said:
You do realize that this isn't truly a virus, right? It's a HARDWARE exploit hack.

Just because I've never contracted virus on a Mac, it shouldn't make you angry. :rolleyes:
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You missed my point and yes I realize this is a hardware exploit but the end result is the same, a security breach which seems to be beyond you. Such an exploit could end up as a payload for a seemingly 'benign' stealthy virus.

I'm simply saying if you 100% believe that your system can never be exploited/infected you're living a fool's dream. We have an opening for a new security manager at my company....you should submit your resume ;)
 
To be clear, the chance of getting a Windows virus on your mac is 0. The chance of getting a Mac virus on your Mac is small, but it's not 0. Remember the faked Leopard screenshots? There are several things keeping Mac from becoming as common as windows when it comes to being infected by a virus: protected memory space (Sandboxing) and limited user rights (password authentication) are the first two big ones that come to mind. Unfortunately, these do little to stop a social attack (faked Leopard screenshots), which may not take down a network, but can screw with your machine. If you're downloading strange software, and putting in your admin password without fully understanding what you are doing, then you'd better hope you've got some AV software to back you up. I think an applicable saying here is, "You can't fix stupid."
 
jdechko said:
To be clear, the chance of getting a Windows virus on your mac is 0.
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Who is saying there is a risk of this? But then who is to say we won't see hybrid viruses that can affect multiple OS variants in the near future. Indeed though, the user always is the weakest link.
 
Norton is the worst thing you could put on your Mac. It's like giving your wife and daughter a sexually transmitted disease and breast cancer.

And no, I'm not exaggerating.
 
Now here's the million dollar question, do any of these mac antivirus programs remove any viruses?
Because if these programs never do anything then there is no point, even if all our computers are infected with viruses, if there is no antivirus software that can fix that, well we just have to live with all the "viruses".
 
belltree said:
Who is saying there is a risk of this? But then who is to say we won't see hybrid viruses that can affect multiple OS variants in the near future. Indeed though, the user always is the weakest link.
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Sorry, I should have put emphasis on Windows. There may be hundreds of thousands of Windows viruses in the computer world, but they cannot execute on a Mac because of a completely different code base. Most of us know this already, but I was just throwing it out there.
 
Been a Mac user for 4 years - never had a virus, nor the need for an Antivirus program. I have a buddy who's an apple retail sales rep who also does technical work on them and he told me not to waste my time with it. I tried Norton once (when I first moved to Mac) - and uninstalled it right away. It just didn't feel "right."

Do as you wish, but honestly, it's not needed.
 
AngryApple said:
Norton thinks McAfee is a virus. They would constantly attack eachother and ask me if I wanted the other one removed.
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That happened to me once, too funny indeed. I either used one or the other after that even though it was said to be resolved.

Many years ago, I tried to uninstall Microsoft IE, and my PC went beserk. Some other Microsoft apps started acting weird, so I put it back and things went back to normal.
 
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