[X Newbies] Apple and all of these viruses?

[Florin Alexander Neumann]

On Sunday, Aug 24, 2003, at 17:18 Canada/Eastern, Vincent Cayenne wrote:

> At 9:30 AM -0400 8/24/03, Florin Alexander Neumann wrote:
>> (2) Does that mean the Mac is invulnerable and I don't need a virus 
>> utility?
>> A: No. Mac viruses are rare, and there have been no OS X viruses 
>> reported as yet. But it's likely that it's only a matter of time 
>> before an OS X virus shows up.
>
> Why, oh why, is this presented as one point?
>
> ...Does that mean the Mac is invulnerable? To currently known malware, 
> yes.

When we say "Mac", we usually mean two different operating systems, the 
"Classic" Mac OS, and Mac OS X. Neither is invulnerable to currently 
known malware. On one hand, there is the malware written for the 
"Classic" versions, which, as Randy pointed out, can also infect the 
Classic environment in OS X (just as Win viruses can infect the Virtual 
PC environment). On the other hand, (as you point out) there are the 
cross-platform macro viruses, which can infect both systems.

> you don't need a virus utility to protect you from Mac OS X viruses - 
> none are yet known to exist

If that's how my post read, then I must have not expressed myself very 
well. I certainly didn't mean to get a anti-virus utility as protection 
against a future virus. An anti-virus utility is necessary for 
protection against (a) native Mac malware (see 
http://www.sherpasoft.org.uk/MacSupporters/macvir.html for a quick 
overview), (b) cross-platform macro viruses, (c) inadvertently 
spreading PC malware. IMHO, the greatest threat is represented by 
cross-platform viruses, that's why I stressed that an up-to-date virus 
utility is especially desirable for Mac users who share Word and Excel 
files with Win users on a regular basis.

Mac users who use Virtual PC should also consider a Win anti-virus 
utility, especially if they do downloading and e-mailing from the VPC 
environment (yes, there are a few...).

f