What would you do here ?

[Rottersod]

[ QUOTE ]
lol well dont repost the link that you suggest people not to click on.

and since it was brought up in this thread, why are Macs invulnerable against viruses? just people dont care enough to write them to [censored] with macs? or are macs just that super awesome that they can't get [censored] with. I'm thinking about getting a powerbook.

[/ QUOTE ]

Powerbooks are yesterday's technology. You want a Macbook - which uses the Intel Mac chipset.

As for why Mac users don't have to be concerned about spyware and viruses, the reasons have been debated for years but the facts are clear. No one that I know who uses a Mac for their personal use has any kind of anti-virus or anti-spyware software and I haven't seen an actual virus (a real one, not a proof of concept one) on a Mac for years.

[ReptileHouse]

If you look not-so-closely, you'll see that I changed the text so the link doesn't work. I made it explicit since there was confusion about just what the heck people were talking about.

For Macs, there are indeed virii that will attack them; however, they are far, far less common for a few reasons. First, and more importantly, Macs are much, much less common than Windows PCs, so malware writers don't target them as much. They want bang-for-the-buck, and that means PCs. Pretty much any non-Windows system is in the same situation. Second, a Mac's OS is more secure from the start, owing a great deal to its BSD heritage. Security is designed in, not added on as an afterthought. The reasons don't matter much in the long run, though. Purely from a practical perspective, Macs are less at risk for malware than Windows PCs.

Short version, yes, macs are more secure. No, they're not so much more secure that you can get cocky about it and not worry about security issues at all.

[Rottersod]

[ QUOTE ]
...No, they're not so much more secure that you can get cocky about it and not worry about security issues at all.

[/ QUOTE ]

It's funny because I've been a Mac user and a Mac expert for years and every time the talk starts on "malware" someone always says this. And yet, it's been many, many years since there was any real concern in the Mac community about this - back to the pre-OSX days when we had to deal with Microsoft worms that actually could be destructive. Back then we all ran Norton Antivirus. Today we don't. Until I hear about an actual working piece of Mac OS malware that has been automatically redistributed among many Macs I won't worry about it.

[GaryTheGoat]

[ QUOTE ]
<font color="red">Do not click that link</font>

Why did that link get changed when it was quoted

I am not tech savvy but I am suspicious. This thread got bumped after 2 months and someone substituted a suspicious link and made it look like it was the same link being quoted.

[censored]. Time to run a virus scan.

[/ QUOTE ]

Great catch! Cornell Fiji for a moderator's job!

[ReptileHouse]

Rottersod,

Look, I'm not some Windows guy trying to bash on Macs. I own a Macbook Pro and love it. It's the best laptop I've ever used, by far. I like and respect Apple products. Mac OSX is technically superior to Windows in virtually every way.

Maybe I'm paranoid because of what I do for a living. I know how "secure" most software is. I'm not saying that everyone should panic. Rather, I'm saying that everyone, including Mac, Unix, Linux, etc, users, should exercise reasonable caution. Don't run executables from untrusted sources. Don't randomly click everything you see. Etc. etc. None of this is hard or unduly burdensome on the user.

As far as malware on the Mac, it's rare but exists. For example, 30 seconds of google turns up: http://www.macintouch.com/opener.html. That program is NASTY. It's a true rootkit. Bad, bad stuff.

There are two bad scenarios: complete paranoia about "bad things" that leads to being scared to use the wonderful tools we have available to us (some Windows users get into this mode, albeit with some justification); and complete disregard for the possibility of bad things that leads to carelessness (Linux folks are most prone to this, but Mac folks do it too).

Nothing is perfect. Nothing is perfectly secure. There are always risks. In some cases very many, in some cases very few. They are always there.

Do what you choose. Personally, I'm careful with my Mac, my Linux machines, and my Windows machines. How I define "careful" varies significantly from system to system.

[Rottersod]

[ QUOTE ]
Rottersod,

Look, I'm not some Windows guy trying to bash on Macs. I own a Macbook Pro and love it. It's the best laptop I've ever used, by far. I like and respect Apple products. Mac OSX is technically superior to Windows in virtually every way.

Maybe I'm paranoid because of what I do for a living. I know how "secure" most software is. I'm not saying that everyone should panic. Rather, I'm saying that everyone, including Mac, Unix, Linux, etc, users, should exercise reasonable caution. Don't run executables from untrusted sources. Don't randomly click everything you see. Etc. etc. None of this is hard or unduly burdensome on the user.

As far as malware on the Mac, it's rare but exists. For example, 30 seconds of google turns up: http://www.macintouch.com/opener.html. That program is NASTY. It's a true rootkit. Bad, bad stuff.

There are two bad scenarios: complete paranoia about "bad things" that leads to being scared to use the wonderful tools we have available to us (some Windows users get into this mode, albeit with some justification); and complete disregard for the possibility of bad things that leads to carelessness (Linux folks are most prone to this, but Mac folks do it too).

Nothing is perfect. Nothing is perfectly secure. There are always risks. In some cases very many, in some cases very few. They are always there.

Do what you choose. Personally, I'm careful with my Mac, my Linux machines, and my Windows machines. How I define "careful" varies significantly from system to system.

[/ QUOTE ]

I remember that Macintouch thread. note that it was from 2004. The "opener" rootkit turned out to be much ado about nothing as it was never proven to be a self replicating file. Most experts agreed that it was installed by someone who accessed the users machine and deliberately put it there. The fact that there have been no concerns about this for almost 3 years speaks for itself.

The biggest piece of advice I would give any Mac user is to have a firewall and keep it turned on and at max protection unless you specifically need access to a port.