01-25-2009, 04:31 PM

Evening all

Apologies if this is a stupid question - i'm a bit new to OSX after having used PCs for several years....
Is there a danger of downloading spyware just from visiting a website? I ask because i followed series of links and ended up at i.wz.cz, which was an empty page. Having googled that address it seems that some windows users have flagged it as a spyware site.

I've searched the forums, and it seems that OSX is safe from pretty much everything, and all should be ok as long as I don't put in my admin password for anything untrusted?

Thanks - i'm pretty sure all is ok but just want to hear from those who know these things.

01-25-2009, 04:43 PM

the wonderful thing about os x, is that malware cannot install itself. although it can be hidden in other installations. there was recently a big problem with a trojan comming with a pirated copy of iwork '09. but, stay legit, know what your installing, and know why your typing in your password, and you should be fine.

01-25-2009, 04:59 PM

Any software whatsover will require an admin username and password to install.

So, unless you are going about installing trusted software, any request for your admin password would alert you to any malware attempts.

That said, malware attempts are rare, precisely because it id so difficult to propagate trojans and malware on OS X

01-26-2009, 03:52 AM

Cheers! - it's a big difference coming from windows to mac, not having to worry too much about security.

01-26-2009, 04:07 AM

As long as you're on a Mac, you're pretty much safe.

For Windows users, don't randomly click on links to shady websites advertising porn, pirated software, or MP3s, and you will most likely stay malware-free. I have been observing this on my PC for a year now and I haven't had a single malware problem. So it's not actually that big a deal in Windows.