Apple Recommends Anti Virus Software

[Squirt]

[Priam]

Just an FYI, apple withdrew the virus recommendations, as they were old and outdated like i said. They did this yesterday.

They must have read this thread and they were scared.

The Truth

hehe probably ;p

They also said mac's are still to be considered virus free, and that a virus-scanner wouldn't bring any extra security, since macs have other types of security built in.

[Rainigul]

hehe probably ;p

They also said mac's are still to be considered virus free, and that a virus-scanner wouldn't bring any extra security, since macs have other types of security built in.

Hey, I gotta question: Do iMacs really have extra security built in? Or when they say that do they just mean that mac reads programs differently so virus files aren't executed?

Or is there like some sort of warrior who lives in the computer and battles viruses?

[Priam]

It's said to be some sort of system that's built in the OS, which silently monitors that stuff.

[strangelove]

Hey, I gotta question: Do iMacs really have extra security built in? Or when they say that do they just mean that mac reads programs differently so virus files aren't executed?

Or is there like some sort of warrior who lives in the computer and battles viruses?

The security that everyone keeps talking about is the Unix base that the OS is built upon. Unix-based systems are basically built to require that an administrator allow modifications to be made to a system. For example, let's say some virus did manage to infiltrate a Mac. It would not be able to do any major damage because it would require the administrator to allow or deny access to destroying useful information.

It is very much like Vista's "cancel or allow" security only a million times less annoying since it will only ask you for files that are vital to the OS and not every little action you do.

If anyone recalls installing Windows XP, you might notice that the first account you make is, by default, the Administrator account meaning that any changes to system files that take place on that account will be automatically allowed. This is one of the ways many Windows machines are compromised.

The biggest vulnerability in Macs is the end user. You can have the most secure computer in the world but there will always be users that will allow malware into their computer either by error or ignorance.

[Rainigul]

Ahh, I see, yeah, vista was annoying like that, so I just disabled it lol.

That's a good idea though, so nicely played apple.