10-22-2005, 08:43 AM

I heard from a friend that Apple Macs are less susceptible to viruses. His reasoning behind this is that most of the sad individuals that program viruses tend not to target macs. How much truth is there in this? Does this mean that if (hypothetically) I was to use P2P sharing then I would be less at risk to viruses and spyware?

10-22-2005, 09:58 AM

Originally Posted by hojkoff_101

I heard from a friend that Apple Macs are less susceptible to viruses. His reasoning behind this is that most of the sad individuals that program viruses tend not to target macs. How much truth is there in this? Does this mean that if (hypothetically) I was to use P2P sharing then I would be less at risk to viruses and spyware?

Yes, it does for the simple reason that at this time, and probably will change when the "Intell Macs come out", very few virus/spyware writers bother to write for the Mac. Why waist your time writing for 3 million people when you can write for 10 million.

Now, on the other hand even though virus and such for the Mac are rare, if you are connected to a lan in which there are pc's, you could be able to pick up a pc virus and pass it on to the pc. That would be the reason to run both firewalls and virus protection on the Mac.

10-22-2005, 10:28 AM

if you run your computer in a network with PC's then you should use virus protections, as james said. Apples also have many built in protections and i've been told it is hard to make a virus for one.

10-22-2005, 11:04 AM

Not so much the fact that it's PPC vs. Intel - more the fact that OS X sits on a BSD based foundation; which has a more secure design from the ground-up than Windows does. (Witness the situation with Vista...)

Of course Mac virus' would affect less people and people with mallicious intent would probably wish to affect more people.

That said, OS 9 and earlier did have its fair share of Virus attacks, so it adds a little bit of weight to the argument that OS X is inherently more secure than Windows.

i wouldn't wish to say inpenetrable though...

Vicky

10-22-2005, 04:00 PM

Originally Posted by James

if you are connected to a lan in which there are pc's, you could be able to pick up a pc virus and pass it on to the pc.

Only way you could do that is if you actually took the file and dragged it to the PC yourself. The viruses can't just go through a mac on their own.

10-22-2005, 04:33 PM

Originally Posted by lil

i wouldn't wish to say inpenetrable though...

Oh no I know. But it does seem that these days when you connect up to the internet your computer is flooded with crap. I just hope that it doesn't happen to my new Apple.

I'm gonig to get Norton. Will the Apple version defend me against PC based viruses lurking around deep in my Apple?

10-22-2005, 04:43 PM

Originally Posted by James

probably will change when the "Intell Macs come out",

Isn't the Intel part only the chip in the computer? I thought that viruses only went at the OS? So even when the intel stuff does come out mac uses will still get the same extra bit of protection as the OS hasn't changed. I may be wrong though. I only really know what I'm half talking about really.

10-22-2005, 04:59 PM

Yes norton will find PC virus'; that's all it can find - as no OS X ones exist.

As regards to x86 being more vulnerable as chip to virus' than PPC; that's not the case as you say, PC virus' attack Windows based weaknesses for the most part, so if Windows isn't there, a Windows virus won't work. Witness how you can get a virus on Virtual PC running Windows, yet really it's on OS X and on a PPC processor.

As such it's not x86 that's a weakness, it's Windows.

After all, how many virus writers these days are actually going to program in x86 assembler, and find an actual weakness in the CPU? FDIV was the last such example on x86 that was a hardware bug that caused crashes.

(FDIV allowed 7/0, 255/0 etc. which should cause a divide by zero error, on the few 60 and 66MHz Pentiums affected, it wouldn't and it'd crash).

As such being as no one programs virus' in x86 assembler, it won't suddenly mean OS X becomes vulnerable, as most programming these days is in high level code, meaning C++ which is used very prevalently for Windows application development.

of course if you manage to hack your Mac-intel to run Windows (hypothetically speaking) outside of something like Virtual PC then yes - bring on the spyware and virus attacks

Vicky

10-23-2005, 08:34 AM

Originally Posted by lil

Yes norton will find PC virus'; that's all it can find - as no OS X ones exist.

Are you sure....

http://store.apple.com/Apple/WebObje...12.1.42.1.17.0

Can I also ask what, x86, PPC and a Virtual PC is? I like to know these things

10-23-2005, 09:01 AM

One word for you:

Symantec.

The people who make Norton have recently spearheaded a campaign to sell more of their anti-virus software on the Mac by scaring people into buying it. Rest assured, I have been using OS X since 2001; and not run a virus checker and been fine. That doesn't mean you shouldn't - but remember, marketing speak

Definitions:

x86: In the simplest sense meaning Intel Pentium processors.

More accurately meaning a processor derived on x86 architecture. The first chips used in IBM PCs were 8088s. but then the 80286 (286), 80386 (386), 80486 (486) and unofficially the Pentium was the 80586 or 586 - the x means just any number in the x86 processor series from Intel. So when I say x86 and others do, it generally means Intels 386, 486, Pentium and above CPU architecture.

PPC - PowerPC.

VirtualPC - PC Emulator. originally from Connectix but bought out by Microsoft. Allows you to run operating systems and software designed for the x86 PC platform, such as Windows.

Hope this helps!

Vicky

10-23-2005, 10:16 AM

Originally Posted by hojkoff_101

Isn't the Intel part only the chip in the computer? I thought that viruses only went at the OS? So even when the intel stuff does come out mac uses will still get the same extra bit of protection as the OS hasn't changed. I may be wrong though. I only really know what I'm half talking about really.

Your not wrong, osx with an intel will probably be like osx with the ibm chip, the reasoning for that statement was that with the intel chip there is a lot of talk about running windows type programs on the Mac. IF ... that does come about, and we won't really know it till it comes out and it is tried, then a lot more people will be interested in buying a Mac. With more people on the Mac, then the virus writers will be more interested in writing a virus for it.

Like i said in my original message, why write for 3 million when you can write for 10 million...

10-23-2005, 10:51 AM

Originally Posted by lil

One word for you:

Symantec.

The people who make Norton have recently spearheaded a campaign to sell more of their anti-virus software on the Mac by scaring people into buying it.

So will Norton even defend me at all? Or am I just buying the PC version that will run on a Mac? Which I presume will give me absolutely no protection from Mac viruses (the few that there are) at all and will just root out any PC viruses that happen to be on my Mac. Is this all just a big con from Norton?

What about Norton firewall? Is that any good?

10-23-2005, 11:06 AM

It's not a con because the idea is that should one ever come along, Norton wil ldownload its virus profiles as it does now, and thus defend against the virus.

It's a hypothetical thing.

Norton Firewall.... Use the built in one which OS X has (go to Sharing in System Preferences) :flower:

I personally don't use any of Symatec's products as well, no need to.

10-23-2005, 12:44 PM

Read this:
The Official Mac AntiVirus and Firewall FAQ

Also try searching using the search feature at the top of the forum. This subject has come up ad nauseum.

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