Alex Coplan
Senior Member
The future of mac...
Posts: 387
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Post by Alex Coplan on Dec 29, 2008 19:54:23 GMT
Does anyone actually use antivirus, about a month ago apple posted a notice on their support pages recommending antivirus to all mac users, they even suggested using MULTI anti-virus products, from my experience on the dark side, this just caused mayhem. This caused a huge fuss, and apple removed this from their support pages, even google cache was wiped of this article. Then apple proceeded to post an article claiming that Mac OS X Leapord provides great anti-virus protection "out of the box"! Does anyone have any thoughts on the whole mac virus/antivirus issues?
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jock
Full Member
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Post by jock on Dec 30, 2008 10:36:06 GMT
I suspect that these days, it's not so much virii that are the problem, but trojans, web applets and phishing emails. (I thought I was quite savvy about these things, but I have, in the past clicked on something I knew I shouldn't have when my attention was elsewhere and launched some nasty little electronic organism into my computer's innards.) I'm currently trying out iAntiVirus on the Mac side of things - it's the spyware / key loggers I fear more than the viruses these days. Because I know I make mistakes, I like a little extra security.
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Post by Forum Cat on Dec 30, 2008 13:51:04 GMT
Does anyone actually use antivirus, I don't, and I don't see the need. I know of some who do to protect their PC using friends if they file share with them. Other than that I see AV software as a liability. Historically AV software has caused more problems on the Mac than it solved. Sometimes making the OS less stable as it buries itself deep. I tried AV once and struggled to get it uninstalled later. During the time I was using it it never found a single thing. Apple make a good job of keeping the security side of the OS up to date. I make sure all the security updates are installed ASAP Until there are real dangers that Apple can't fix I am keeping my Mac AV free.
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Alex Coplan
Senior Member
The future of mac...
Posts: 387
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Post by Alex Coplan on Dec 30, 2008 16:26:11 GMT
Same, and yes , it is mostly phishing and trojans, the other day there was one pretending it was from Mobile Me, and there was also one saying that you had been "blocked" on your IM, so you had to enter your details to fix it, luckily firefox warned me before I did that, is there any such warnings in safari?
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Post by wierdostomps on Dec 30, 2008 18:33:32 GMT
Personally, I don't mind installing protection as long as it a/ doesn't do me any harm and b/ doesn't cost me anything.
I've been using ClamXav for some time now. It's never found a virus, but I've no reason to believe it's missed one either. I recently bought the MacUpdate Christmas bundle which came with a copy of VirusBarrier X5 (not the reason I bought the bundle) so I've installed that and it doesn't seem to be doing any harm.
I do run Windows via VMWare Fusion and on that side of things I am pretty paranoid - we have a corporate licence for Sophos and I never boot Windows without upgrading it - various PC networks I have been involved with have been rendered unusable by virii in the past!
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Post by Forum Cat on Dec 30, 2008 20:24:42 GMT
various PC networks I have been involved with have been rendered unusable by virii in the past! Should that not be viruses? Or maybe vir-arses?
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Alex Coplan
Senior Member
The future of mac...
Posts: 387
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Post by Alex Coplan on Dec 30, 2008 22:41:29 GMT
Nice one Mr.Cat!
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Post by wierdostomps on Jan 1, 2009 21:47:16 GMT
I thought Heather was our resident linguistic pedant? Since there are no active Mac virae, I thought a non-existent plural was appropriate
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Post by HeatherKay on Jan 2, 2009 9:54:24 GMT
I may be a linguistic pedant, but I'm getting more and more relaxed about things these days. It's not worth the blood pressure!
I believe the word "virus" is from the Latin meaning poison. According to Wikipedia, the meaning we use today ("agent that causes infectious diseases") was first recorded in 1728, before viruses were discovered in 1892 by Dmitry Ivanonovsky. A single infective viral particle is called a "virion", and the plural is "viruses", since there is no recorded plural in Latin for words ending in -us.
To prove the latter, open the Apple Dictionary, click the Wikipedia tab and enter "plural of virus" in the search field.
I love the Leopard Dictionary app. It rawks! 8)
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Jinja
Full Member
Posts: 83
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Post by Jinja on Jan 2, 2009 23:29:51 GMT
I have very recently installed iAntivirus (it's free...!!) from here: www.iantivirus.com/Got to say it's very basic, extremely easy to use and seems quite unintrusive so, gets a thumbs up from me. If you feel you'd like that extra piece of mind then this virus software is a no brainer really
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Post by Forum Cat on Jan 3, 2009 0:23:47 GMT
I have very recently installed iAntivirus (it's free...!!) from here: www.iantivirus.com/Got to say it's very basic, extremely easy to use and seems quite unintrusive so, gets a thumbs up from me. If you feel you'd like that extra piece of mind then this virus software is a no brainer really It it finds anything do let us know. However I am not going to hold my breath.
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Jinja
Full Member
Posts: 83
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Post by Jinja on Jan 3, 2009 14:25:02 GMT
I have very recently installed iAntivirus (it's free...!!) from here: www.iantivirus.com/Got to say it's very basic, extremely easy to use and seems quite unintrusive so, gets a thumbs up from me. If you feel you'd like that extra piece of mind then this virus software is a no brainer really It it finds anything do let us know. However I am not going to hold my breath. Me neither but MS scared me soooo much into to having some form of protection plus I can't fit a stretchy latex thing over my 24"....!!!
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Alex Coplan
Senior Member
The future of mac...
Posts: 387
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Post by Alex Coplan on Jan 4, 2009 19:16:09 GMT
When I was on the dark side, and still in bootcamp now, I use Nod32, very good antivirus protection, some sites I have been on, the site tried to donwload something which I let slip, and it (Nod32) stopped it straight away, I could tell afterwards that it would have been dangerous, nobody actually answered my question - in firefox (mac) I get warnings when I go on phishing sites, but are there any such warning in safari, I noticed it mentioned that in the 3.1 update...
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Post by Forum Cat on Jan 4, 2009 20:56:06 GMT
I don't know about phishing warnings in Safari. As I don't visit any site linked to in an Email it has never been an issue for me. Does anyone know if a warning setting is in Safari?
Cat
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Alex Coplan
Senior Member
The future of mac...
Posts: 387
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Post by Alex Coplan on Jan 4, 2009 21:48:41 GMT
I get a lot of my MSN contacts (I use adium) suddenly appearing online, sending me a link, which will look something like "alex-coplan-cool-new-year-pics.com" (Alex Coplan is my name), and then it will have a wink after it, then they will go immediately offline again, I clicked on it, and it asked for MSN login & password, suddenly I got suspicious, I scrolled down to the bottom, which read: Terms & Conditions - Once you enter your MSN Details, you give us permission to use your account to spread the word about this new feature. That's when I decided, THAT's ENOUGH!!!! Unfortunately, two or three of my friends got infected because they are not very wise about these things, I did try to tell them! Has anyone else had an IM in this way, they manage to do it very convincingly, and I have nearly fallen for one, there is also one saying "YOU'VE BEEN BLOCKED, ENTER YOUR MSN NAME & PASSWORD TO FIND OUT WHO" I copied the link into firefox, and it gave me a phishing warning! These things are so damned annoying!
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