05-30-2011, 08:47 PM

Hi,

I was listening to the radio this morning and I heard that now that Apple has more than 16% (im not sure on the number) of the computer market, that it is now worth while for hackers to make attacks on OSX. Im not sure if this is related to Mac Defender.

I really don't want to get stuck in this virus trap again, like what happened to my PC. The whole reason I bought a mac was to not have viruses. Is there anything I can do to block any outside attacks? This may sound ludicrous, but I'm not sure what to think. If anyone can inform me on what to do or what not to do, that would be great.

Also, sorry if this is in the wrong forum, im not really sure where to put it :/

05-30-2011, 08:55 PM

Blocking outside "attacks" and viruses / Trojans and other nasties are different things. You can turn on your firewall on the Mac and authorize individual Apps to connect as you use them. You can enable "stealth" mode in the firewall as well. This will help eliminate things like DoS attacks etc and can help keep your machine more secure.

As for other nasties you can download free AV software like ClamEx AV, you can uncheck the 'Open downloaded files" box in Safari and you can be smart in your computing habits. Nothing for the Mac currently exists like it does for Windows and I don't think Apple reaching a random number of market share is going to change that.

As for the current crop of Malware, it's pretty harmless unless you give it your CC number. Even then it's pretty harmless in and of itself, you'll just end up paying a large CC bill because of it. Otherwise the same advice that millions of PC user actively ignore applies to the Mac. Don't open e-mail attachments from people you don't know, don't open downloads you know you didn't purposely download and so on....

You can also read this: Official antivirus, malware, and firewall FAQ

05-30-2011, 10:31 PM

Since the OP is not likely to read the sticky, even though he should, I'll summarize a bit:

a. Still no viruses for the Mac. MacDefender (et al) is malware, credit-card-scam ware. Not a virus. Still no viruses for the Mac, nor are there ever likely to be due to the UNIX nature of OS X.

b. Not only is Apple releasing a patch to deal with MD and its variants in a few days (hours?), all you have to do to protect yourself from unwarranted downloads is turn off (uncheck) the "open safe files after downloading" option in Safari's preferences. There you're done.

c. The software firewall on your Mac is unneeded, as you probably already have a hardware firewall doing the same thing (in your router), and two firewalls are just going to conflict with each other. The software firewall is handy when you are on an unknown network sometimes maybe, but I personally have never felt the need for it.

d. Basically, your Mac remains immune to most of the problems associated with Windows. Scareware, trickware and other forms of malware will always be with us, depending on how gullible we are. The best defence against that is to, as baggss said, use common sense: don't download "porn viewing codecs," don't pirate software, don't give your admin password to software unless you know what it is, and don't fall for "you have a virus!" scares. You're on a Mac, you don't have a virus.

05-31-2011, 01:26 PM

Good answers.
Fair question.
Lousy topic title. Being as specific as possible is best.