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Apple Computing Products:
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Best Way To Migrate To A New Mac?
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<blockquote data-quote="Randy B. Singer" data-source="post: 1861858" data-attributes="member: 190607"><p>I don't know how Macworld came up with such a small list, but even at twice the size, it isn't close to being correct.</p><p></p><p>This list, that stopped being updated six years ago lists 51 pieces of malware:</p><p></p><p>[URL unfurl="true"]https://thesafemac.com/mmg-catalog/[/URL]</p><p></p><p>There is a repository of samples of all current Mac malware. It has close to 150 samples. (I won't give a link for obvious reasons.)</p><p></p><p>However, the above numbers are a bit misleading. Each piece of malware for the Mac (or for Windows) has a huge number of variations. Each general type of malware acts as a template for quickly creating new and only slightly different versions of the same malware specifically for the purpose of avoiding detection. So while you would be correct to say that there are about 150 types of malware for the Macintosh, and over a couple million for Windows, in more practical terms there are more like a few thousand examples for the Macintosh, and more like close to 450 MILLION (sic) examples for Windows. Malware detection is a constant cat and mouse game, with malware being more or less a shape-shifter.</p><p></p><p>So, as you can see, any comprehensive anti-virus (AV) program has a surprising number of Macintosh malware examples to look for. But even that understates the chore....</p><p></p><p></p><p>That *is* how MalwareBytes works, and the MalwareBytes folks have said so themselves. However, the chore is not at all that simple. First of all, some malware can infect an almost infinite number of apps. OR, an almost infinate number of apps can be weaponized with an individual type of malware for a user to unknowingly download and install. AV software has to be able to look at any and every app that might possibly be infected and determine if it is indeed infected. On top of that, since there are a huge number of subtle variations of each type of malware for the Macintosh, good AV software has to be able to search through each one of those apps and detect every one of those variations. As you might guess, this process takes a legitimately comprehensive AV program a good amount of time. Sometimes it takes HOURS. (Do you really think that MalwareBytes can do in 20 seconds what it takes VirusBarrier several hours to do?) Whatever something like MalwareBytes is doing (and I'm not saying that it isn't doing some worthwhile checking for viruses, I know for a fact that it does at least some worthwhile checking) in the scan that it does in less than half a minute, there is NO WAY that it is doing a comprehensive scan for all infections, in all forms, in all of the places that malware might be hiding.</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="Randy B. Singer, post: 1861858, member: 190607"] I don't know how Macworld came up with such a small list, but even at twice the size, it isn't close to being correct. This list, that stopped being updated six years ago lists 51 pieces of malware: [URL unfurl="true"]https://thesafemac.com/mmg-catalog/[/URL] There is a repository of samples of all current Mac malware. It has close to 150 samples. (I won't give a link for obvious reasons.) However, the above numbers are a bit misleading. Each piece of malware for the Mac (or for Windows) has a huge number of variations. Each general type of malware acts as a template for quickly creating new and only slightly different versions of the same malware specifically for the purpose of avoiding detection. So while you would be correct to say that there are about 150 types of malware for the Macintosh, and over a couple million for Windows, in more practical terms there are more like a few thousand examples for the Macintosh, and more like close to 450 MILLION (sic) examples for Windows. Malware detection is a constant cat and mouse game, with malware being more or less a shape-shifter. So, as you can see, any comprehensive anti-virus (AV) program has a surprising number of Macintosh malware examples to look for. But even that understates the chore.... That *is* how MalwareBytes works, and the MalwareBytes folks have said so themselves. However, the chore is not at all that simple. First of all, some malware can infect an almost infinite number of apps. OR, an almost infinate number of apps can be weaponized with an individual type of malware for a user to unknowingly download and install. AV software has to be able to look at any and every app that might possibly be infected and determine if it is indeed infected. On top of that, since there are a huge number of subtle variations of each type of malware for the Macintosh, good AV software has to be able to search through each one of those apps and detect every one of those variations. As you might guess, this process takes a legitimately comprehensive AV program a good amount of time. Sometimes it takes HOURS. (Do you really think that MalwareBytes can do in 20 seconds what it takes VirusBarrier several hours to do?) Whatever something like MalwareBytes is doing (and I'm not saying that it isn't doing some worthwhile checking for viruses, I know for a fact that it does at least some worthwhile checking) in the scan that it does in less than half a minute, there is NO WAY that it is doing a comprehensive scan for all infections, in all forms, in all of the places that malware might be hiding. [/QUOTE]
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