Viruses on a mac? yes according to this print shop.

[hdsalinas]

I took a job that I did to one of my clients to the print shop that they are working with.

I noticed that they had 2 G5 powermacs. One was hooked to a nice 24" ACD and the other to a 20". (too bad these fine displays where covered in tacky stickers.)

Anyways, the lady who works on one of the towers scanned my DVD with the art work for viruses. I asker her if she had ever detected viruses before and she said no. I then told her that there is really no point to that since there are no viruses for macs. She then gave me a look as if I did not know a thing. She then said "No viruses on a mac?! Yes there are!". Then she said, "Like five years ago I got one on a G3 and lost everything and had to reinstal the OS."

She didnt seem too nice so I didn't bother talking more about it. I guess what probably happened was that the drive became corrupt or maybe one of the programs.

So, could it really have been a virus?

 

[iBookG4user]

I am very doubtful that it was a virus, as most of the very few virus' on the Mac are proof of point virus' and they are never even released in the wild, or you have to be painfully stupid to get them.

 

[CanadaRAM]

I am very doubtful that it was a virus, as most of the very few virus' on the Mac are proof of point virus' and they are never even released in the wild, or you have to be painfully stupid to get them.

Oh, how soon they forget...

There were viruses for OS 6/7/8/9. Not a lot of them, but there were. That's probably what printerlady ran into.

And Word MacroViruses can affect Office documents on any platform that runs Office.

And someday, somewhere, an OSX virus or a trojan or some other exploit will damage data on OSX machines.

Don't let complacency override reality.

 

[xUKHCx]

Could've been a virus on OS 9. Not OS X.

 

[topgunn]

If her G3 did in fact get a virus, it was certainly running OS 9.

 

[Jaffa Cake]

So, could it really have been a virus?

Possibly – there were a few viruses knocking about for pre-OS X versions of the Mac OS, so if she had OS 9 or previous on her G3 all those years ago then yes, there is a chance that she may have fallen foul of a virus.

It's no excuse for tacky stickers, though.

 

[Killyp]

There are a few viruses going around for OS X actually, but it's less than 10, and they've all been patched by Apple. Since joining this forum I know there have been two, and they've both been patched by Apple. The people who made them sent the info to Apple and let them patch the flaw before they released it into the wild.

 

[iBookG4user]

Oh, how soon they forget...

There were viruses for OS 6/7/8/9. Not a lot of them, but there were. That's probably what printerlady ran into.

And Word MacroViruses can affect Office documents on any platform that runs Office.

And someday, somewhere, an OSX virus or a trojan or some other exploit will damage data on OSX machines.

Don't let complacency override reality.

Maybe that's because I never ran OS 8 or 9, I've only used OS X, System 7, and ProDOS. (I believe that's what the Apple ][e used) Mind you I was only 3 when my parents bought the Quadra 650 with System 7 on it.

 

[synth3tik]

A guy at my coffee shop got a strange worm on his G5 PowerMac. Strange enough that Apple took his G5 and gave him a new Mac Pro. There has been Viruses and other malware on Macs. The clerk was just watching the shops back. No reason to get upset with someone who wants to use virus protection.

 

[dpaanlka]

It's far more likely she did something and is confusing it for a virus. Of the Viruses that were available for Mac OS classic, I can't think of one that would have that effect.

Don't let complacency override reality.

Yeah but, like, they can't run on Mac OS X. Possibly under Classic. And they can't effect Intel Macs at all.

A guy at my coffee shop got a strange worm on his G5 PowerMac. Strange enough that Apple took his G5 and gave him a new Mac Pro. There has been Viruses and other malware on Macs. The clerk was just watching the shops back. No reason to get upset with someone who wants to use virus protection.

Yeah, I'd need a bit more reliable source than "a guy at a coffee shop" to believe that.

 

[hdsalinas]

The clerk was just watching the shops back. No reason to get upset with someone who wants to use virus protection.

Oh no, I didn't get upset with her. In fact I let her check my dvd. I was just curious why she did it. She was not the nicest person in the world but I tried to be polity to her. Even if my observation would have been correct, she would have never changed her mind. So I did not bother.

She just made it look like you have to constantly be watching out for viruses on a Mac... just like PC users do.

 

[hdsalinas]

BTW, I honestly think that she messed her G3 that time. Again I was not there, dont know the details, and barely know her, but I think the chances of a virus doing the harm are a lot less than she ruining the mac.

 

[synth3tik]

Yeah, I'd need a bit more reliable source than "a guy at a coffee shop" to believe that.

I'm really not asking you to believe me. I myself had some doubt with what he was telling me. I was when Apple sent him a me Mac Pro that I started thinking his issues were legit. As far as actual viruses I know of 2, One was in system 7, and the other affected 10.1 and that came out after 10.3. There is more melware, worms and the what not for Mac then viruses, the lady at the print shop could have had anything, she could have even had a laspe in judgement and thought something happened, but to say the she did NOT have a virues is just a little ignorant.

 

[gnasher729]

There are a few viruses going around for OS X actually, ...

That's news to me. I bet it is news to Apple as well. Do you know the difference between a "vulnerability" and a "virus"?

 

[dpaanlka]

but to say the she did NOT have a virues is just a little ignorant.

Apple wouldn't send anybody a new computer because of a software issue which is what a virus would be. He must have had a hardware issue (and a severe one at that), and mistook it (as often happens) as being a virus.

So I can confidently say a virus was not his problem. It's not being ignorant, it's stating the obvious. If anything, he would be the ignorant one, calling a hardware issue a virus.

 

[SC68Cal]

Apple wouldn't send anybody a new computer because of a software issue

No, just hardware issues.

zing

 

[localoid]

... She then said "No viruses on a mac?! Yes there are!". Then she said, "Like five years ago I got one on a G3 and lost everything and had to reinstal the OS."

It's important to remember -- on any given day, it's highly probable that 50% of the people you encounter will be below average intelligence.

 

[IJ Reilly]

It's far more likely she did something and is confusing it for a virus.

I think you've nailed it. How often do the "Have I got a virus?" threads pop up on these boards? How often is that the real issue?

 

[SkyBell]

Of course Macs get viruses; ALL OS's get viruses, no matter how secure.

 

[dpaanlka]

Of course Macs get viruses; ALL OS's get viruses, no matter how secure.

Was that a sarcastic mockery of this thread?

 

[scokim]

Of course Macs get viruses; ALL OS's get viruses, no matter how secure.

i think that is true. it depends on how you pick up the virus.
the case above could have been a script running to delete files.

 

[Voidness]

i think that is true. it depends on how you pick up the virus.
the case above could have been a script running to delete files.

Well, such a script would be called malware, and all OS's can have malware. A virus should be able to spread to other computers through a network or a removable medium, without user interaction. (Maybe in the case of spreading over a network, it would be called a worm).

 

[Killyp]

That's not quite true if you classify a Virus as a malicious program or script which runs itself on the user's machine with the intent of destroying data or compromising personal info without the user's consent.

If that is the case, then an up-to-date OS X machine is 100% secure from above...

 

[CrackedButter]

There are a few viruses going around for OS X actually, but it's less than 10, and they've all been patched by Apple. Since joining this forum I know there have been two, and they've both been patched by Apple. The people who made them sent the info to Apple and let them patch the flaw before they released it into the wild.

Repeat after me.

There are no viruses for OSX.

Anyway...

What the thread starter should have said, there are no viruses for OSX, that would have cleared the entire issue up with the printer lady, instead a generalisation was made and the printer lady was confused as are a few individuals here.

 

[vincebio]

Of course Macs get viruses; ALL OS's get viruses, no matter how secure.

name me one?