Security concern

[Ness1990]

Greetings. In light of recent malware alerts on the Mac, it got me thinking about the security of my Mac. I frequently download files such as roms , sometimes from untrustworthy sites and the idea of my computer being infected has been bothering me. So i just have a few questions.

As a precaution, i set a random and long password for my Mac, and i was wondering if any form of malware would be able to bypass this.

Anywho, assuming i had any form of malware on my computer, would erasing the data by overwriting all the data with zeros 7 times and erasing free space remove the malware? (btw, what does it mean by erase free space?) Would the malware remain or be removed?
In addition, would a malware be able to infect the install disc whicch i am using to clean install?

Finally, would the malware be able to reinfect using my IP address?

Thanks, genuine answers are greatly appreciated.

 

[simsaladimbamba]

Greetings. In light of recent malware alerts on the Mac, it got me thinking about the security of my Mac. I frequently download files such as roms , sometimes from untrustworthy sites and the idea of my computer being infected has been bothering me. So i just have a few questions.

As a precaution, i set a random and long password for my Mac, and i was wondering if any form of malware would be able to bypass this.

No.

Anywho, assuming i had any form of malware on my computer, would erasing the data by overwriting all the data with zeros 7 times and erasing free space remove the malware? Would the malware remain or be removed?

The malware would be removed, even without a 7-pass or a Zero Out, as they are not needed.

(btw, what does it mean by erase free space?)

Depending on what option you chose (Zero Out or 7 pass), the free available space will be overwritten with zeros (Zero Out) or with random ones and zeros (7-pass) seven times.

In addition, would a malware be able to infect the install disc whicch i am using to clean install?

Unless the install disc can be written to, malware can not infect the install disc, which has only read abilities.

Finally, would the malware be able to reinfect using my IP address?

No, as the IP is dynamic, unless you have a static IP.

Mac Virus/Malware Info by GGJstudios
There are currently no viruses for Mac OS X in public circulation, only a handful of trojans and other malware, which have to be installed manually via entering the administrator password.
The only anti-virus you need to protect your Mac is education and common sense.​

 

[Tumbleweed666]

There is no need at all, especially for your purposes, to erase data more than once even if you had the worst ever malware infection.
There is also no need to have an ultra long password, that's only help against someone who takes your computer away and runs a crack on it,( assuming you are using an encrypted disk, which I strongly suspect you arent).
If you install some dodgy software which is a Mac trojan, you will not know that (or you wouldn't be installing it would you?) so you'll just type your ultra long $uper$ecret1234567890 password in anyway.

If you really are using dodgy software, you best bet is to run as a VM, so you can just blow the VM away should you be foolish enough to install Malware. Then you can just start from a clean VM.