Virsus on a Mac?


I don't think so... pretty much it's like George Bush's politics, based on fear, so Norton (mess up your computer) Anti virus want to make money out of your fear that you could get a virus. It's bollocks.

What's depressing is that PC user's paranoia can make a Mac user of many years phone me up and ask what AV software he should get even although he hasn't even seen a virus on a Mac in the last 10 years he has used a Mac!

Read on for further ammo to tell those PC users and lacking in confidence Mac users why they don't need AV or Spyware software.

-------------------------•••--------- Update----------•••------------------------------

Having just said all that I've just heard about a Trojan Horse called Leap-A that only works with Mac OS 10.4 (Tiger) more info here Does this mean Macs are getting more popular?

some folks are chatting about the sony software debacle and someone
says to a mac user who said to use a mac for internet access:
This is a common misconception:
"Mac's don't get viruses"
Just running a Mac won't exclude you from threats.
I wish that it was that easy. My housemate runs a Mac
(brand new Mac notebook, w/ OSX 10.4)
and she still gets hit with a virus or malware once and a while.

That is absolute and complete BS. There is NO malware or viruses in
the wild for OS X. More than likely it's just another Windowze Troll
posting crap on the fora. There are lots of new switchers who just
cannot believe that there's just not fewer viruses, there are NONE.

It's been three years now, and *still* no one has managed to come up
with a virus that attacks OS X. The hackneyed argument "Oh there just
aren't enogh of you to matter" is BS as well. Viruses have been
released targeting specific programs on PC's that have an installed
base several orders of magnitude smaller than OS X's installed base.
While most viruses and malware are aimed at some weakness in
the Windows OS or Windows programs, Mac's can still get
infected or hacked.
[aren't the incidences extremely low ?]


I'd say zero is low, yes. There has been, to date, ONE reported
threat to the mac, a crude rootkit called, variously Renopo or
Opener, but as it required root access to install, it' not extremely
useful. The only people who are saying anything about it are the
Security Focus folks, who, not coincidentally, are owned by Symantec,
who wants to keep extracting good money from mac users for selling
something that does absolutely no good. Moreover, the person who
reported and wrote the most about it is employed by, yeppers, Symantec.
The best setup, is to run protection programs, no matter what OS
you're running.

AV on Macs is snake oil pure and simple. I've not run AV on my macs
since the late great Disinfectant. Even before that the only virus
I've ever gotten on my Mac was WDEF, back in about 1989 or 90.
Upgrading the Mac Plus to System 7 cured that one.

If your ISP doesn't run AV scanning on the e-mail, get another ISP.
(I'd say get another ISP if they don't run AV and antispam filtering,
but I'm picky.)

The other argument that's used most often is that "you might pass on
a virus unwittingly".

This is like saying you might unwittingly find a can of spray paint
on your un-graffittied sidewalk, and "unwittingly" spray it all over
your neighbor's sidewalk. It's nonsensical, you have to explicitly
forward the messages.

And if your PC-using friend doesn't have decent, up-to-date AV
software on his system, then they have larger problems than you
forwarding "Hot Nekkid Britney Pix" virus mails.

Posted: Thu - December 1, 2005 at 05:49 PM          

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