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Mac's don't get viruses?

What makes you say that, the program I use from them has detected and fixed problems here at work that AVG, kaspersky or Norton didn't detect.

But anyway, as far as I know my home computers have never had any problem with viruses, everything runs very well, I also format Windows ever 6 months so that may help :)
 
smurfjammer said:
They have been say that since the release of Mac OS 10 and yet still no viruses...and that was 8 years ago.
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First off, I think an OS X virus is very unlikely for many reasons, including some mentioned like it's very tight lip on security, and it being a small target compared to Microsoft Windows. If OS X were a product of Microsoft, and just as it is right now, it would definitely be a target for many viruses and some would infect it.

The likelihood of a Mac virus is about as likely as the Lions winning the Super Bowl next season - not impossible by highly improbable. :)
 
Fizzoid said:
Or Sasser, which infected machines in a similar way
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Both of which were stopped with a good firewall. These types of attacks have really almost disappeared since MS turned the firewall on by default in XP SP2. Conficker is really the first big worm to hit since SP2. It still isn't as good as a good hardware firewall, but it is a good step.
 
vandozza said:
(and from what I've seen/read is mostly a FUD campaign coming from anti-virus software makers!).
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I never totally understood the passive-aggressive conspiracy theory paranoia a few people exhibit when it comes to what they read believing to be the truth without investigating the matter themselves--I take everything I read on the internet or watch on TV with a grain of salt. Besides the software I use is free so I see no direct underlying motivation on their part to spread paranoia for profit the "campaign" as you put it is just a soft word for stating that there is some kind of conspiracy going on.

People as a whole are not really that complex I worry more about the individual with a grudge, than I do groups because groups as a whole I believe are controllable through proper manipulation and even the most nefarious clandestine group activities tend to break apart through internal conflict. As I stated earlier it is likely that some ******* with time on his or her hands just for *****andgiggles might come up with a virus and infect lots of people without any warning. I worry very little about the mob because with larger numbers there is more predictability thanks to how information flows. What makes success is not the teamwork either, but the individual that guards their secrets vigilantly and controls the team through subtle manipulation and a need to know attitude disseminating the information as necessary to achieve their own goals.
 
konman795 said:
"One of the reasons mac's don't get viruses is because no virus maker is going to make a virus for a computer that holds such a small market."
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Termites eat wooden houses and leave concrete parking garages alone because there are so many houses and so few concrete structures.

Well maybe the above is true, you'd have to asks a termite to be sure. But I think what matters more to both termites and computer viruses as what the thing is made of. Mac OS X is made of different stuff. Now we can get technical and explain the details but what maters is the the OS is designed differently. BSD Unix which foorms the core of Mac OS X was designed from the ground up with the idea that many people would be using the computer at the same time. back when Unix was invented computers were to expensive fo one person to own. There were always shared. Windows came around much later and was designed when the computer has only one user and no network and security was a nonissue
 
ChrisA said:
Termites eat wooden houses and leave concrete parking garages alone because there are so many houses and so few concrete structures.

Well maybe the above is true, you'd have to asks a termite to be sure. But I think what matters more to both termites and computer viruses as what the thing is made of. Mac OS X is made of different stuff. Now we can get technical and explain the details but what maters is the the OS is designed differently. BSD Unix which foorms the core of Mac OS X was designed from the ground up with the idea that many people would be using the computer at the same time. back when Unix was invented computers were to expensive fo one person to own. There were always shared. Windows came around much later and was designed when the computer has only one user and no network and security was a nonissue
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I would only agree to a point. I could see both OS types as types of wood. Windows is soft, wet, and rotten wood and good eating. OS X is hardened wood and not as appetizing, unless there is none of the Windows "wood" left to eat. :)

The only way to make OS X virus proof forever is to never share files or use the internet/email. I know of several users, including me, that have Macs that are stand alones dedicated only to graphics or gaming.
 
The only thing I have to say to those beating the "Security Through Obscurity" drum is this:

Scores Virus

For those who remember, this was a virus, and a pesky bugger that infected Macs running OS 6x in the 80's. When Macs were incompatible with everything but each other - even the floppy drives were a "new" type.

Please let's not confuse Attack with Breach
 
This debate gets older and older everyday.

When there is a risk that the Mac OS is open to widespread virus attacks, I might listen. Thats not to say I'm not careful. I use every security measure when online shopping is concerned. At the end of day, phishing is a bigger concern and that affects Mac's and PC's.

User input is a virus in my opinion
 
akonradi said:
How else would you expect it to work? You have to develop the virus. It has to be put on the victim machine before it can do anything to the computer. Sure you need to copy it over, but that doesn't make it a trojan.
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If you have to install it yourself, knowingly or not, it's a trojan.

Just to reply to a post on the other page: there's a program called OSX rkhunter which is designed to search for UNIX rootkits.
 
Jethryn Freyman said:
If you have to install it yourself, knowingly or not, it's a trojan.
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You don't install it... you have to go through the means to get it on the computer through dragging and dropping the file to the drive of the test system (anywhere on it). Other than that there's nothing to it. If it's written on another computer, how else would you get it on to the one for testing? Magic?

Every virus is triggered by something that the user does... They don't come pre-installed.
 
akonradi said:
You don't install it... you have to go through the means to get it on the computer through dragging and dropping the file to the drive of the test system (anywhere on it). Other than that there's nothing to it. If it's written on another computer, how else would you get it on to the one for testing? Magic?

Every virus is triggered by something that the user does... They don't come pre-installed.
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Unless it's the OS X beta back in the day ... OK, OK, just kidding. :)
 
OK, there are ZERO viruses for OS X, UNIX is very resistant to viruses, we don't need to say any more than that.

It's probably possible to write a virus, but there are none at the moment.

We write viruses to test our servers against attack and they have great potential when they exploit certain parts of the system. It makes no sense to distribute them because that isn't the intention, but don't fool yourself by thinking that it isn't possible.
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This doesn't support your argument at all, all you've done is stated that you can write viruses, with zero proof.

I'm sure if you can write a virus to test your systems, some hacker would have written a virus and distributed it.

You don't install it... you have to go through the means to get it on the computer through dragging and dropping the file to the drive of the test system (anywhere on it). Other than that there's nothing to it. If it's written on another computer, how else would you get it on to the one for testing? Magic?
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The bold part. You can't just copy a virus onto a UNIX system and have it execute.
 
Jethryn Freyman said:
This doesn't support your argument at all, all you've done is stated that you can write viruses, with zero proof.
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What do you want as proof? As I said before, the point isn't to make a virus to show the world, but rather to make sure that we can prevent others from causing problems in the future.

I'm sure if you can write a virus to test your systems, some hacker would have written a virus and distributed it.
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I would guess that there's a lot more motivation for a group moving almost 200k people and a bunch of cargo around on a daily basis to protect their computers than some person(s) looking for something to do on a Tuesday afternoon. Also of note, I personally don't write the viruses; a large group in IT does.

The bold part. You can't just copy a virus onto a UNIX system and have it execute.
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And you say this why? Because you haven't seen it happen? While we are running out of loopholes as we update our security system, there are still some out there to be discovered as something gets patched probably three or four times a year. They're more or less ticking time bombs. You can't hide behind the idea that it's impossible.
 
Jethryn Freyman said:
This doesn't support your argument at all, all you've done is stated that you can write viruses, with zero proof.
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What do you want him to prove it?!? I would rather just let him keep his viruses to himself. Don't challenge him. If his virus gets out, we will have you to thank. ;) You are about as smart as the ****** who thinks because WWE is fake that you can just walk in there and knock them out.

You are acting like a stupid fool. I once did the foolish thing of listening to someone who told me that all I had to do for my old Windows machine was install McAfee once, and Norton, and download updates for one year and I should be good. A couple of years after feeling safe, with no viruses, with a three year old McAfee and Norton suite, I got hit with a major virus. However unlikely an event seems, it's better to be safe than sorry. It's not a question of if a Mac virus will happen, it's a matter of when. Be smart.
 
konman795 said:
Hello, I'm new here. I live in Taipei, Taiwan and saw some of these mac commercials on youtube (I went looking for them, and I'm from the USA). I've seen several commercials of mac attacking PC on the viruses thing so I went on the net and did some research. I found there results (which I'm not saying are right or wrong): "One of the reasons mac's don't get viruses is because no virus maker is going to make a virus for a computer that holds such a small market." I can see this making some sense since I rarely see any apple computers/laptops throughout all my travels over the globe. What do you guys think, is it just an excuse or is there some validity behind it?
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not true at all, if u can remember mac os 9, it was plagued with viruses, and its market share was much less than mac os x today so to say viruses are based on market share is completely incorrect
 
All I am saying is that malware can't execute itself if it it simply copied onto a computer. It either has to be run by the user, or has to be sent to the computer already active (a worm.)

What you're saying is like me saying I've written my own virus which can take control of OS X, but I'm not going to release it because I don't want it falling into the wrong hands. Nearly every UNIX "virus" requires the user to mess up in some way, and then it takes advantage of a hole in the system, and I'll assume the same for the the test virus written by your company, until it's proven otherwise.
 
Sipheren said:
What makes you say that, the program I use from them has detected and fixed problems here at work that AVG, kaspersky or Norton didn't detect.

But anyway, as far as I know my home computers have never had any problem with viruses, everything runs very well, I also format Windows ever 6 months so that may help :)
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If you haven't done so, try Avira, it has probably one of the best detection rates with few false positives. With Trend Micro it may have been picking up false positives or not, dunno. I'm not sure if their site is back up and going yet but take a look at http://www.av-comparatives.org/ they do independent tests on a lot of major antivirus software. - I know off topic.

Mac is based on Unix, Unix is what Linux is derived from.
Mac = secure system files = Unix/Linux (we'll say Unix in this case)
Windows = Unsecure system files = $100 bill laying on the ground - which means anyone can do what they want with it.

Think about it if Windows secured down its critical system files, got rid of the registry, it'd work a heck of a lot better. Mac uses PLIST files for its info, which is like the registry just XML based. So let's outline the problems with Windows:
Filesystem = NTFS, come on really?
System files = still able to edit some as a regular user
Registry = very easy to get into and mess around with which crashes the system
Firewall = External 3rd party one needed otherwise let the hacking begin
Services in the registry = seriously do I need to explain this one

Unix has a better design with its services, they're located in /etc/init.d for Ubuntu. Looks like M$ needs to take OS design 101 again.
 
I just remembered a way it is possible to corrupt a Mac HD with a windows virus--it is possible for those who dual boot OSX and Windows thanks to the Intel chip. A decent virus worth its salt doesn't care what files it attacks on a hard drive or what partition if it is downloaded through Windows it can and will infect whatever files it can get to and may just as likely corrupt Mac OS by corrupting the Hard drive itself when both OSes are present on a single drive--such a thing is not unheard of.
 
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