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New Mac-user...question regarding viruses

N

norcalstadium

macrumors member
Original poster
Jun 4, 2007
80
0
I just bought a MacBook Pro 2.4 15.4''; is there any sort of virus protection program I should buy, or does OS X simply protect itself?

(its hard to believe that a mac is not susceptible to any sort of virus)
 
you could buy nortan or some other anti-virus for mac but it wont do anything...
 
Hard to believe..but true. :)

Its not really a case of OSX 'protecting itself' rather its a case of virus's and spyware not being written for OSX.

As mentioned, relax and enjoy.
 
Macs are theoretically vulnerable to viruses. However, in practice, viruses on a Mac are literally unheard of, for two reasons:

1) The design of Mac OS X makes viruses much more difficult to write than on Windows, though it is not impossible.
2) The low market share of Mac OS X means that it is not as inviting a target as Windows.

At least for the moment, virus software on a Mac is completely unecessary.
 
avalys said:
2) The low market share of Mac OS X means that it is not as inviting a target as Windows.
Click to expand...


Never understood that argument/reasoning. Think about it, with all the hype around how secure OSX is wouldn't you want to write a virus for it? If someone wrote the first "Real" virus for OSX tomorrow it'll probably be headline news, even though it'll only affect 5% of the computers. Doesn't matter if it was even a basic virus but if it acts like a windows virus the creator would be pretty famous to say the least.
 
avalys said:
2) The low market share of Mac OS X means that it is not as inviting a target as Windows.
Click to expand...

This has been gone over in detail before so I don't want to regurgitate it all here. Basically, systems that are heavily exploited are exploited because it is easy (easier) to do so. Unix has been around longer than Windows and is more secure. Apache has a greater share of the web server market than Microsoft's product and is more secure. Specialty applications with small market share have been compromised.

As Amoda says, there would be tremendous fame involved in Hacking OSX (google Dai Zovi for an example). No one is running Month of Window Bugs or $10,000 Hack Windows contests. OSX may only have a 2% market share but that is 25 million users. That should be target enough for 2% of viruses to be OSX viruses.

There are technical reasons why secure systems are more secure. There are plenty of articles on this if you want to read more.
 
norcalstadium said:
I just bought a MacBook Pro 2.4 15.4''; is there any sort of virus protection program I should buy, or does OS X simply protect itself?

(its hard to believe that a mac is not susceptible to any sort of virus)
Click to expand...
Make MacRumors the first page you visit everyday. When a Mac virus appears (which I'm sure it will), you'll be one of the first to know, armed with all the info you need, to know how to avoid it. Enjoy your mac ;)
 
amoda said:
Never understood that argument/reasoning. Think about it, with all the hype around how secure OSX is wouldn't you want to write a virus for it? If someone wrote the first "Real" virus for OSX tomorrow it'll probably be headline news, even though it'll only affect 5% of the computers. Doesn't matter if it was even a basic virus but if it acts like a windows virus the creator would be pretty famous to say the least.
Click to expand...

Nobody writes a virus for fame. It's done for money. To create botnets, or to steal credit card numbers and the like.

And there are risks involved. Nobody knows exactly _how_ upset Steve Jobs would be if you wrote a successful Macintosh virus and _I_ wouldn't want to find out. :D
 
emptyCup said:
This has been gone over in detail before so I don't want to regurgitate it all here. Basically, systems that are heavily exploited are exploited because it is easy (easier) to do so. Unix has been around longer than Windows and is more secure. Apache has a greater share of the web server market than Microsoft's product and is more secure. Specialty applications with small market share have been compromised.

As Amoda says, there would be tremendous fame involved in Hacking OSX (google Dai Zovi for an example). No one is running Month of Window Bugs or $10,000 Hack Windows contests. OSX may only have a 2% market share but that is 25 million users. That should be target enough for 2% of viruses to be OSX viruses.

There are technical reasons why secure systems are more secure. There are plenty of articles on this if you want to read more.
Click to expand...


OS X has little over 6% market share now :p

But yeah you are absolutely right, those percentages may look small but they still represent at least 25 million people which is more than my country has (The Netherlands).
And besides...the first Vista virus was already there when they still only had 10,000 users.
 
gnasher729 said:
Nobody writes a virus for fame. It's done for money. To create botnets, or to steal credit card numbers and the like.
Click to expand...
Nobody? That's a pretty strong claim. One which I think you'll find is incorrect. And there have been plenty of virsuses written whose sole intent was not to create botnets or steal credit card numbers, but simply cause a little bit of mischief. Not done for money, at all. But just to stroke the writer's ego.

From a BBC News article entitled "Why people write computer viruses":
Aside from the growing organised crime element, there are still some who do it for the kudos in their community, so much so they have formed loose "gangs", usually between 16 and 26 years old.
Click to expand...
 
gnasher729 said:
Nobody writes a virus for fame. It's done for money. To create botnets, or to steal credit card numbers and the like.
Click to expand...

The first thing that came to mind when i read this was Cabir. It was the first smart phone virus. Did pretty much nothing but scared the crap out of a lot of people. It simply proved that it could be done and probably got the creator some street cred.
 
I've had my PB for 3 years now and nary a hiccup or viral issue.

I just had to help a friend with his new toshiba with vista. It is so cluttered with anti-virus BS that it's almost unusable. Total crap! Made my PB seem fast!
 
No need for anything, but you might want to take pity on Windows users and download and install ClamXav and scan email so that you don't pass anything along.

Even if there's something that ClamXav finds, it won't harm your Mac, but it might just bugger the heck out of a Windows machine!
 
skwij said:
No need for anything, but you might want to take pity on Windows users and download and install ClamXav and scan email so that you don't pass anything along.

Even if there's something that ClamXav finds, it won't harm your Mac, but it might just bugger the heck out of a Windows machine!
Click to expand...

Thanks skwij, I was going to post the same thing

Your Mac is quite capable of getting Microsoft Macro Viruses attached to Office docs, and of passing along infected files and poisoned jpgs/mp3s/whatever to Windows users.

If you are in a commercial setting where you are transferring files with Windows users, you may want to establish virus scanning for that reason.

There's nothing like losing a client due to having sent them a virus and infecting their network... Letraset did this years ago when they distributed infected disks with trial versions of software. Cost them a lot of free samples in order to make up for the University and corporate machines they messed up.
 
There was a recent virus sent around msn I'm not sure if it got wide spread but I got sent it on Mac messenger from a friend with a link and writing next to it saying "Is this in you in this pic?" to download so I clicked it and sure enough it downloaded. I laughed at my friend who sent me it because she was one of the persons I have been arguing that macs are better :D. But later she said it was ok because she got rid of it with nortan and quoted "Good old Nortan" I replyed "Yeah I can see it now.. Microsoft new ads "Get windows get infected, send it to all of your friends via Msn! Then say ah its alright because I paid £100 for a Anti-Virus that got rid of it!""
 
as well as all that, the reason viruses were made for windows was because they were used in businesses and the viruses were written to get increments of money from the businesses. After programs/viruses were written, people started using them just to mess with people.

Macs dont have viruses because there is none written for them because the market share of macs is not that high and not many businesses run on macs.
 
TimJim said:
...
Macs dont have viruses because there is none written for them because the market share of macs is not that high and not many businesses run on macs.
Click to expand...

Thats utter Bullsh**, There are no viruses for the Mac because Mac OS X Is built on Unix a very secure programming language so its harder to write viruses for Macs and because we "Brag" about not getting viruses that would make us a HUGE target, people would want to make viruses for the Mac because it would kinda go down in History. So don't give us the whole Macs don't get viruses because they have 5%. The 90% are just too scared to switch over fears of compatibility problems and having to learn how to use a new OS, even though Mac OS X is very much like Windows in its interface systems just a few different things in different places. You can thank Microsoft for that, coping Mac OS X means its easier for people to switch. And the other 5% are Microsoft employes.
 
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