[X4U] Consumer Reports

[keith_w]

Randy B.Singer wrote:

> Ted Burton said:
> 
> 
>>The only virus/worm I've heard of that have anything at all to do 
>>with the MacOS X are those that use Microsoft Office script languages 
>>to bung up Microsoft Office documents.
> 
> 
> There are no viruses that infect OS X specifically.  But there is malware 
> that is at least minimally (very minimally) relevant to users of OS X.
> 
> There are Microsoft macro viruses out there. Both for Word and Excel. 
> Some of these are very malicious.

In light of which, I have a question.
I run Mac OS 10.3.9, and will be installing a brand new copy of MS 
Office 2004 in about a week.
Valid reason? My wife uses PC programs at work, and has decided she 
wants the ability to do some work-work on the home Mac.
So, back to having MS products on my Mac!  Sighhhh.

Anyhow, first question is, must you be actually using a Word or Excel 
macro in order for the "macro virus/worm" to activate?
If I use the various parts of MS Office bareback, no macros, etc., do I 
have to concern myself about viruses or worms?

If so, what's the least obtrusive solution that still works?
In your most humble opinion, of course!  <wink>

Should I install Office 2004 on a separate HD inside the CPU? Will that 
isolate the probability of infection?
Awww, that raises a ton of other questions, and may not be practical in 
the long run.

keith whaley

> Trojans are potentially very destructive, though they are not 
> self-propagating. 
> 
> Trojans for OS X include Opener/Renepo, the WordInstaller Trojan, 
> MacCowHand, and MP3/Concept. MP3/Concept does not exist in the wild as 
> anything other than a proof-of-concept, as far as anyone can tell. The 
> others are rare, but they do exist:
> http://www.sophos.com/virusinfo/analyses/maccowhanda.html
> http://www.macintouch.com/opener02.html
> http://securityresponse.symantec.com/avcenter/venc/data/macos.mw2004.trojan
> .htm
> http://www.macworld.co.uk/news/index.cfm?NewsID=8406
> http://www.intego.com/news/pr41.asp
> http://www.securityfocus.com/archive/1/395107/2005-04-03/2005-04-09/0
> 
> There are a number of OS 8/9 viruses still around, and almost all of them 
> can also infect Classic running in OS X.  But they are quite rare at this 
> point because almost all of them were designed to propagate via the 
> sharing of floppies, which no one uses anymore.  
> 
> And while, IMHO, the possibility of a Mac acting successfully as a 
> carrier of a Windows virus to infect other Windows users is miniscule, it 
> is still possible.  Some mac users consider Windows viruses received as 
> e-mail attachments to be "infections" because they share files with 
> Windows users.
> 
> So, are there "viruses" for OS X?  Not specifically, no.  But there are 
> viruses, or at least "malware", that are relevant to OS X.  Even if that 
> relevance is incredibly marginal.
> 
> Randy B. Singer
> Co-Author of: The Macintosh Bible (4th, 5th and 6th editions)
> 
> Routine OS X Maintenance and Generic Troubleshooting
> http://www.macattorney.com/ts.html