Toolkit
Story: OSX 'at risk from attack'
Posted by: Kevin Trumbull (Wednesday 23 March 2005, 6:56 PM)
There are some cases where it actually is very important to have virus protection on Macs. The main case is when you have networks of machines running MacOS and Windows. The culprit for the viruses on the Mac is always Microsoft Office, which can spread macro viruses from Mac to Mac. They cause very little to no effect on the MacOS 9 (Classic) or MacOS X (Unix) platforms, but can become a haven of viruses which can trash the windows machines.
In a corporate or educational network setting (I have worked most recently in edu), it's essential to make sure that the Macs aren't harboring viruses which can cause problems for IT (meaning me) on the less secure platform. In doing some research, viruses (about 50-70 of them) exist for classic MacOS, they don't run on OS X, although I have not tried to launch any under classic. I have found 3 for Linux, but I couldn't get them to work without doing something completely stupid. There was a worm (The Ramen Worm) that infected Linux based web-servers for a short while, but it only worked on RedHat, so I didn't care, since I run Slackware.
Full Talkback thread
Story: OSX 'at risk from attack'
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Failing of course to mention that yes- although vi... Paul Munro -
Attack does not equal vulnerability, except on Win... Olav Petri
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(1) Symantec is in the business of selling protect... Joseppi Blauinski
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This is just such a load of self-serving crap ...... Anonymous
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Total nonsense. Yes, of course as OSX grows mark... Anonymous
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When a company that sells anti-virus software anno... Ken Cox
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Symantec writes to worst software for the Mac in e... advocate
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What's Symantec's Anti-Virus for Mac going to... Ben Welsh -
They're right, but only in a trivial sense -- sinc... Laird Popkin
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What a load of FUD. Anyone with the smallest sence... Anonymous
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Unfortuantely ( and expectedly ) the virus mongers... Tor Sigurdsson
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What a load of cobblers.
A couple of years back I... Mac Guru
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Ziff Davis continues to embarrass themselves with... Anon E. Mouse
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Symantec is just concerned about their profits. T... Evan Marshall
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It is true that all operating systems are at risk... Carl Vander Bee
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They are desperate because MS is about to put them... Ryan Gray
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Has this guy ever seen a computer? what a tool! BMX BANDIT
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There are some cases where it actually is ver... Kevin Trumbull -
Windows user sees b.s. I don't buy the hype and wo... Anonymous
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In other news, if you run Windows you run the risk... Vermine
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