| On 2/6/2005 10:15 AM, Alias:
| >
| > | AV software increases the cost of ownership. Linux and Mac OS X do
not
| > | require AV software.
| >
| > They will if they ever become popular. It's not due to the innate
security
| > of Linux and the Mac but due to the fact that very little viruses are
| > written for those platforms. Macs can, btw, get viruses and have.
|
| Some people still rely on myths for their beliefs.
Speak for yourself:
From
http://news.zdnet.com/2100-9595_22-520537.html?legacy=zdnn
Watch out: Viruses on the Mac
By Stephen Beale MacWEEK.com May 7, 2000, 5:00 PM PT
Macintosh users largely escaped the bite of the "Love" bug, but viruses and
similar agents have been part of the Mac landscape for many years. The first
Mac viruses, nVir and MacMag, appeared in 1987, the latter originating from
a Macintosh magazine in Montreal. More recently, users contended with the
notorious AutoStart worm that invaded Mac systems worldwide in 1998.
Viruses, worms and Trojan horses -- the three main categories of computer
miscreants -- remain a much bigger problem for PC users than their Mac
counterparts. Of the 42,000 viruses counted by Symantec in October, only a
tiny handful target the Mac, and none poses a serious threat to Mac users,
especially if you have up-to-date anti-virus software and observe other
common-sense precautions. The most recent virus definitions from Symantec
Corp.( symc) and McAfee.com Corp. (mcaf) -- the two major developers of
commercial anti-virus software for the Mac -- guard primarily against macro
viruses that attack Microsoft Word 6, which is no longer in widespread use.
But Macs are not immune from infection. The most memorable recent example
was AutoStart 9805, the first known Macintosh worm, which originated in Asia
in 1998 and soon spread around the world. Using QuickTime's AutoStart
feature, the worm and its variants invaded Power Mac systems from infected
media if the CD-ROM AutoPlay option was enabled. Contaminated systems
suffered from corrupted files, unexplained crashes and other symptoms.
A virus invades a computer by attaching itself to one or more host programs
or to the boot sector of a diskette. When an infected program runs, or a
computer boots up, the virus replicates itself in other files on the system,
but generally not to other systems. A virus spreads to other computers only
through incidental contact -- when users exchange floppy disks or download
files. Worms, in contrast, do not need a host program to replicate and tend
to spread aggressively to other systems. A Trojan horse is a malicious
program that masquerades as a useful one.
The AutoStart worm prompted developer John Norstad to retire Disinfectant, a
shareware program that many Mac users had relied on as an alternative to
commercial anti-virus packages. Norstad told users that Disinfectant was not
designed to protect against worms, and he advised them to buy a commercial
program such as McAfee's Virex or Norton Antivirus, which has developers
with more resources for responding quickly to outbreaks.
The "Love" bug and last year's Melissa virus, both of which are limited to
attacking Windows PCs, combine elements of a virus and a worm. They resemble
viruses because they use an e-mail program as their host, but they act like
worms because they can send copies of themselves to other computer systems.
Neither can infect Mac OS systems because they are written in VBScript, a
scripting language that is not supported on the Macintosh. However, as some
users learned, the viruses can attack the Windows partitions on Mac systems
running PC emulators -- including Mac files mapped to those partitions.
Many Mac users were hit by the Microsoft Word and Excel macro viruses of
1997, which differed from other viruses in their ability to attack across
the platform divide. Viruses are generally specific to one operating system,
but because the macro viruses hid themselves in Word and Excel templates
they infected Mac and Windows users alike, although some strains caused more
serious consequences for the latter.
The virus invaded Word or Excel when an infected document was opened. The
infected programs would then save all documents as templates along with an
embedded copy of the bug. The virus spread when users exchanged Word or
Excel documents with others. Word 98 and Excel 98 include built-in
protection against macro viruses, so the bugs are a concern only for those
still running the previous versions.
Another class of Mac viruses targets HyperCard stacks. The first known
HyperCard virus, MerryXmas, was not written to be destructive but, due to a
bug, sometimes causes HyperCard to quit. Another notorious virus, Blink,
causes stacks to flash on and off.
HyperActive Software, a developer of HyperCard software, maintains extensive
information about HyperCard viruses and their remedies on its Web site.
Norton Antivirus and Virex offer protection against these viruses, as well
as the macro viruses and AutoStart worm.
Attempts to spread misinformation about nonexistent viruses are almost as
big a problem as viruses themselves. For example, after last year's Melissa
virus outbreak, many users received e-mail messages similar to this:
"This information was announced yesterday morning from IBM; AOL states that
this is a very dangerous virus, much worse than 'Melissa,' and that there is
NO remedy for it at this time. Some very sick individual has succeeded in
using the reformat function from Norton Utilities causing it to completely
erase all documents on the hard drive. It has been designed to work with
Netscape Navigator and Microsoft Internet Explorer. It destroys Macintosh
and IBM compatible computers. This is a new, very malicious virus and not
many people know about it."
In addition to needlessly scaring users, the hoaxes tend to create e-mail
congestion as people warn their friends and co-workers about the bogus
virus. Symantec and McAfee Web sites both maintain updated lists of hoaxes.
Some security experts have warned that Web sites could be the next major
source of virus attacks -- not through traditional software downloads, but
by placing malignant Java or ActiveX code on the desktop.
Symantec raised this frightening prospect in a background document on its
Web site. "Although it has not yet happened, it is possible for virus
writers to use ActiveX and possibly Java to introduce viruses, worms and
Trojan horses onto a Web-surfer's computer, turning Web pages into virus
carriers. By simply surfing the Web, users could expose their computer to
viruses spread via ActiveX controls, without downloading files or even
reading e-mail attachments. The virus writers could then use the virus to
access RAM, corrupt files, and access files on computers attached via a LAN,
among other things."
Symantec noted that Java is much more secure than ActiveX, and would thus be
less prone to such mischief.
Symantec and McAfee both maintain up-to-date information about Mac and PC
viruses as well as educational material on the subject. In addition,
ICSA.net, a provider of computer security services, provides some Mac virus
resources.
|
| Mac OS X does not have any viruses, but there is a proof of concept
| virus for Mac OS X that would require manual propagation and execution.
| Linux may have a few viruses, but those are minor viruses and they do
| not get distributed throughout the world in a day's time as they would
| in Windows.
|
| > | Windows is just a high maintenance operating
| > | system when computer users only want to use their system and not
always
| > | maintain it and do monthly updates. No matter what AV software used
in
| > | Windows, its no where near 100% effective.
| >
| > Well, I have never gotten a virus and I have used Win
95/98/98SE/Me/2000/XP
| > HE and XP Pro since 1997. If never isn't 100%, I'll settle for it
anyway.
| > Norton used to be good when Peter Norton was in charge and he had a
dynamite
| > desk top for Win 3.11. Now, all I hear is problems from Symantec users.
|
| Norton products have worsen over the years and so has McAfee's.
I don't use either one. I use TrendMicro.
