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     <h2 class="date-header">Tuesday, 17 January 2006</h2>
      
   <div class="post"><a name=14></a>
    <h3 class="post-title">Mac OS X Viruses</h3>
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<div>At 6:11 AM -0700 10/6/05, Jim wrote:</div>
<blockquote>&lt;<a href="http://securityresponse.symantec.com/avcenter/vinfodb.html">
http://securityresponse.symantec.com/avcenter/vinfodb.html</a>&gt; is
the searchable database. I just searched for the word Macintosh and
got 2,869 documents found, top 500 by relevance.&nbsp; I have
obviously not read all of them to see how many reference actual
threats to a Mac.<br>
Here is what is in the defs for NAV 10 on my Mac, dated&nbsp;
10/5/2005 say:<br><br>
33,658 Virus names found, 70,732 total virus definitions.
I can then sort by type.<br>Hypercard Virus -- 12 (I doubt most Mac folks still use
Hypercard)<br>Macintosh file infector--34<br>Macintosh Trojan Horse--19<br>Macintosh Worm--2<br>Macros--too many to count. These are cross-platform on
Office documents.<br>
PC Virus--too many to count. I don't know how many of
these might be a threat under Virtual PC because I don't have it.
Running a Windows AV program under VPC might be recommended for those
who do but again I don't have it.<br><br>
There is no breakdown listed as to how many are OS X
although I recognize a few related to concept viruses or worms that
have not been seen in the wild but have been mentioned
online.</blockquote>
<br>

<div>At 8:29 PM -0800 11/27/05, Randy wrote:</div>
<blockquote>There are *no* viruses for OS X specifically. There are
literally thousands of Word and Excel macro viruses, but you can keep
them from running by enabling &quot;macro virus protection&quot; in
preferences in those programs. (Business users, who frequently receive
legitimate Word and Excel documents with embedded macros, may prefer
to have an anti-viral program that can actually detect and clean a
malicious macro from a document, and preserve the
document.)<br><br>
There are two or three Trojans/worms for OS X (not just
&quot;concepts&quot;), but they are incredibly rare, and they aren't
self-propagating, so you are unlikely to encounter them, and only then
if you engage in downloading from peer to peer networks.&nbsp; Trojans
for OS X include Opener/Renepo, the WordInstaller Trojan, MacCowHand,
and MP3/Concept. MP3/Concept does not exist in the wild as anything
other than a proof-of-concept.<br>
&lt;<a href="http://www.sophos.com/virusinfo/analyses/maccowhanda.html"
>http://www.sophos.com/virusinfo/analyses/maccowhanda.html</a>&gt;<br>
&lt;<a href="http://www.macintouch.com/opener02.html"
>http://www.macintouch.com/opener02.html</a>&gt;<br>
&lt;<a href="http://securityresponse.symantec.com/avcenter/venc/data/macos.mw2004.trojan.htm"><span
></span
>http://securityresponse.symantec.com/avcenter/venc/data/macos.mw2004<span
></span>.trojan.htm</a>&gt;<br>
&lt;<a
href="http://www.macworld.co.uk/news/index.cfm?NewsID=8406"
>http://www.macworld.co.uk/news/index.cfm?NewsID=8406</a>&gt;<br>
&lt;<a href="http://www.intego.com/news/pr41.asp"
>http://www.intego.com/news/pr41.asp</a>&gt;<br>&lt;<a
href=
"http://www.securityfocus.com/archive/1/395107/2005-04-03/2005-04-09/0"
>http://www.securityfocus.com/archive/1/395107/2005-04-03/2005-04-09/0</a
>&gt;<br><br>
As for MP3/Concept, when someone posts a proof-of-concept
on the Internet, my personal feeling is that it is sort of like
providing a construction kit for psychopathic geeks to create malware.
Thus, the mere existence of such a proof-of-concept on the Internet
heralds the need for increased security.
<br><br>
There is no spyware for the Mac that can be disseminated
via a Web site or e-mail, so it is highly unlikely that you might
become infected with spyware.
<br><br>
There are classic viruses (for OS 8/9) that can infect
Classic running under OS X, but they have become very rare because
they were designed to propagate via floppy, and Macs haven't used
floppies in ages. (Folks don't seem to share user-recorded CD's like
they did floppies.)
<br><br>
So, your chances of encountering any malware at all, if
you are running OS X, is minuscule. Most Mac users feel that using
anti-viral software is a waste of money. I have used anti-virus
software religiously for at least the last couple of decades, and its
been a long while since it flagged anything other than a Windows virus
that has shown up as an e-mail attachment. (Windows viruses are
completely harmless to Macs.)</blockquote>
<br>
<br>
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      <em>Mickey @ 10:41 AM</em>
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    <p class="profile-textblock"><br>Mickey Michelsen sees the world through libertarian colored glasses.
He is an admitted 'gun nut' and staunch advocate of the Right to Keep and Bear Arms,
as well as other constitutionally-protected rights.<br><br>

Mickey believes, as did Thomas Jefferson: "That government which governs best, governs least."

Most 'social problems' which government sets out to solve were created or exacerbated by
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case of your favorite government program. 

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