Apple Tells Mac Users: Get Anti-virus

[Peaches]

Apple tells Mac users: Get anti-virus

Bragging rights diminish by 12% in face of growing threat

By John Leyden

2nd December 2008 11:33 GMT

"For the first time, Apple is recommending the use of anti-virus tools to protect Mac systems.Long something of a phantom menace, strains of malware capable of infecting Mac machines have gradually been increasing in prevalence over recent months. In addition, VXers are making more use of web-based attack and applications specific vulnerabilities to infect PCs whatever their underlying operating system might be.Windows-specific malware attacks are still orders of magnitude greater than assaults on Mac machines, but the risk to Apple fans is now enough for the Church of Jobs to admit a risk exists.The admission that security scanner software was a good idea for Mac users came in an unheralded update to Apple's support site made on 21 November, first picked up by Brian Krebs at Security Fix on Monday."

Details here: http://www.theregister.co.uk/2008/12/02/apple_mac_av_advice/

[isteve]

Actually Apple has always advised users to use a anti-virus. A few years ago they even gave .mac users a copy of McAfee.

[Peaches]

Actually Apple has always advised users to use a anti-virus. A few years ago they even gave .mac users a copy of McAfee.

A friend purchased a Mac laptop about a year ago and I know his computer is infected cuz a virus alert came up on my screen when I opened his mail. He doesn't believe in any security because he was told by the store sales people that the Mac doesn't require any and all is safe. Well if you believe there is green cheese on the moon, then you will believe what the salesperson said.

by the way, I checked out your links ... love guitar music. Spent some time exploring and listening to videos. Thanks.

Edited December 3, 2008 by Peaches

[jcl]

A friend purchased a Mac laptop about a year ago and I know his computer is infected cuz a virus alert came up on my screen when I opened his mail. He doesn't believe in any security because he was told by the store sales people that the Mac doesn't require any and all is safe. Well if you believe there is green cheese on the moon, then you will believe what the salesperson said.

Was it a Windows or Mac virus?

AFAIK the major concern with Macs is that they can act as 'healthy carriers' for Windows malware. The Macs themselves aren't affected by the malware but can still infect Windows machines via email, shared disks, etc. If that's what happened in your case, your friend is, in a sense, correct, since his machine isn't infected.

[isteve]

There is only one attack affecting the Mac at this time. It is a trojan that changes your DNS settings, I'm pretty sure it doesn't work on a system that is up to date. If it is on a system it is very easy to get rid of with the free DNS removal tool from http://www.securemac.com/

There was a few other proof of concept hacks in the wild but the attacker would need physical access to the computer and a password.