Spyware, Viruses, Trojans

[danny_boy]

Hey,

I'm a new powerbook owner, this is my first Mac. I switched to avoid the plague of all the windows problems. My question is, do macs get any spyware, viruses, trojans? Has there been any in the history of Mac?

Cheers

Danny Boy

 

[HexMonkey]

In the 90's there were a few viruses, but they are pretty much extinct now and they don't affect Mac OS X. Currently, no spyware or viruses affect Mac OS X, although I believe there was one trojan recently.

It will be quite a change from Windows.

 

[Blackheart]

No spyware, viruses, or trojans.

Have fun enjoying your new computer!

 

[trainguy77]

As I recall there is one Trojan, but of coarse you must download it manually to make it work. I think it used that machine as a hacker’s gateway, but I do not remember, it is nothing to worry about.

 

[pubwvj]

I'm a new powerbook owner, this is my first Mac. I switched to avoid the plague of all the windows problems. My question is, do macs get any spyware, viruses, trojans? Has there been any in the history of Mac?

Congratulations on your switching and you probably won't ever run into any malware. That said, I would avoid downloading from BitTorrent, P2P networks, shareware, etc that you don't feel secure about. Some one could write a nasty program to delete files. One trick is to simply not be an early downloader and to use reputable download sites like VersionTracker. Watch the comments.

 

[DarkNetworks]

Yeah i know there isn't the spyware, viruses and trojan issue with the mac but why are there antivirus programs like Norton Antivirus and Virex?

 

[iMeowbot]

Yeah i know there isn't the spyware, viruses and trojan issue with the mac but why are there antivirus programs like Norton Antivirus and Virex?

Why do companies sell little stickers that claim to prevent radiation from coming out of mobile phones? (and isn't the idea of trying to prevent radiation coming from a radio transmitter kind of counterproductive?)

 

[FocusAndEarnIt]

Yeah i know there isn't the spyware, viruses and trojan issue with the mac but why are there antivirus programs like Norton Antivirus and Virex?

To make money, even though they know there aren't ANY viruses/trojans/malware/spyware/adaware for the Macs.

 

[trainguy77]

In addition, some places require you to have anti-virus protection to join their network. Also some forwards have viruses, it will help from passing them on to other windows users, it may not affect you, but it will affect them. It just helps you from forwarding something that will do damage.

 

[pubwvj]

Yeah i know there isn't the spyware, viruses and trojan issue with the mac but why are there antivirus programs like Norton Antivirus and Virex?

Because people buy them. I don't bother wasting money, time, memory or processing power on them.

 

[OryHara]

for some reason i remember hearing about a widget that contained some some sort of "mallware"

 

[dornoforpyros]

for some reason i remember hearing about a widget that contained some some sort of "mallware"

in the first build of tiger some one figured out that they could exploit the auto-install widget "hole" in safari and thus released a 2 examples. However apple seems to have plugged that hole pretty fast.

 

[florencevassy]

Just like people said before = No spyware, viruses, or trojans.

I am very paranoid and had my doubts in the beginning but it is true. I do run Virex but honestly I am not sure if this is necessary (Does Virex even work with Tiger yet).

Congrats on the switch!!

 

[St Soichiro]

Spyware, viruses, trojans ... oh my

To put it in terms of Mr. Neuman, "what me worry."

 

[Plymouthbreezer]

Congrats, and welcome to malware free computing!