Mac viruses and security

q17


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I did a search here and didn't find much, and a lot of the info out on the web is pretty technical and specific. I was just wondering if someone could give me the skinny on the vulnerability of macs as opposed to PCs. Do I need to be as paranoid with my mac notebook as with a PC? Basically, if I am doing benign research and work-related stuff on my mac on a secure network, what is the worst that could happen? Do I need to be doing specific things? Is anti-virus software recommended even if I am careful? Thanks for any insight or experiences.

Edit: Ah, I know, hardware only...I posted in the wrong forum...I knew that, I just made a mistake. Sorry..
 
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Your Mac's Specs
MBP 2.53Ghz, 4GB ram, 500gb hd -- Apple TV 160gb -- MacMini 1.83ghz
I've been using my MBP for a few now and never had any virus/spyware. I'd suggest using common sense and be careful of which websites you are visiting.
 
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Edit: Ah, I know, hardware only...I posted in the wrong forum...I knew that, I just made a mistake. Sorry..
All moved and taken care of for you.
 

bobtomay

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15" MBP '06 2.33 C2D 4GB 10.7; 13" MBA '14 1.8 i7 8GB 10.11; 21" iMac '13 2.9 i5 8GB 10.11; 6S
There are no known viruses in the wild that can affect OS X at this time.
You do not need anti-virus software on your Mac. At the first sign of a virus that can infect OS X, it will be all over the news.
All the anti-virus software for the Mac, currently can only find windows viruses which can not affect your Mac. They will help prevent you from passing a virus along via e-mail to any windows friends you may have.

If you install Windows on your Mac, the windows partition will be vulnerable to all the same viruses as any other windows machine.
 
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q17


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There are no known viruses in the wild that can affect OS X at this time.
You do not need anti-virus software on your Mac. At the first sign of a virus that can infect OS X, it will be all over the news.
All the anti-virus software for the Mac, currently can only find windows viruses which can not affect your Mac. They will help prevent you from passing a virus along via e-mail to any windows friends you may have.

If you install Windows on your Mac, the windows partition will be vulnerable to all the same viruses as any other windows machine.

That is some good news. I am not doing anything that would warrant a virus, but I must admit all my experience with PCs in the past was making me nervous (since it just seems like a function of time that something eventually went wrong) and I wanted to gauge how accurate my security spidey-sense was or not for the mac. (Not very.) Thanks for the info to both who posted, and for the thread move.
 

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