[X Newbies] Viruses on X

[Steven Rogers]

On Thursday, July 31, 2003, at 10:43 AM, TheMacintoshLady wrote:

> I am hoping the answer to this question is a resounding NO. Can OS X 
> be infected by these .pif, .exe, or .scr files that are sent by PC 
> users?

In short, no.  But you can get macro viruses that affect various things 
in the Microsoft family, like Word, and probably some of the 
Outlook-based viruses might cross over if you were reading mail using 
that Outlook (e.g. LookOut!) clone for the Mac. So the basic idea is to 
not open Word/ Excel/ Access, etc. files from people that you suspect 
don't have good virus prevention habits.

The chances of getting a real OS X virus are about the same as winning 
the lottery. Its theoretically possible, but in real life it just 
doesn't happen.

SR