Virus?

Katedesign

Katedesign

Well-Known Member
Does anyone use a virus scanner programme (preferably a free one) that they can recommend? I know that OS X is rarely attacked but my mother-in-law (of all people!) seems to be sending random emails to us and I don't want to get infected!!

Cheers
 
Thanks - my sister-in-law and brother-in-law who run an IT company, supplied the PC to her and live near her are meant to have done this!!!

I'll try ClamXav - it was one someone had mentioned. I must say my Mac didn't get hit - just hubby's PC.
 
Katedesign said:
I must say my Mac didn't get hit - just hubby's PC.
Click to expand...

Yep, there are still only a couple of recognised Mac OS X viruses 'in the wild' but it is still worth running Mac AV, especially if you run Safari as that is like pouring your personal details through a swiss cheese and straight into a criminal's hands.
 
There are, but they're really trojans - you have to do something really stupid to get infected. I'm sure as Macs become more commonplace we'll see one soon...
 
The joy of Macs is that the system will not download and install anything without being manually authorised by the admin account meaning that things like trojans cant install themselves.
 
Actually the ONLY 'virus' I recall having was back in the early 1990s when all the font icons (that normally look like suitcases) turned into Rabbits - and that lasted about two weeks around Easter!
 
In response to the BBC new report I was advised by my Wife (she works for an official Apple reseller) to simply run Software update. There will be a Java update that counteracts that particular problem.
Plus you have to be culpable in it being on your system. It is a flash pop-up that asks you to install and unknown programme. I believe the BBC reports is blowing it up out of proportion, some what.
 
Just been reading a bit more about this and apparently Oracle issued a patch for this 3 months ago. I think you've kinda missed the point of the article there Ken. It's all well and good running a software update now but Apple should have done something when it was first flagged up... and they didn't. Apple under fire over response to Flashback virus - Telegraph The way Apple 'locks down' its software delivery can be both a strength and weakness in equal measures. Yes, I don't get crap but I also don't get vital updates until Apple says I can have them.
 
Hmmmm, yes. Point taken. That is unusually slow for Apple.
I guess this problem is going to become more of an issue as Apple devices become increasingly popular. I believe, the best form of prevention is still vigilance from the user though.

Cheers for linking to the article.
 
Makes sense. That being said, I've worked on a Mac for nearly 10 years (though I'm sure there's some one here who've used one for longer), and havn't been hit with 1 bug, virus, or anything else of the sort. Maybe I'm just a sensible web user!
 
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