On Sep 21, 2004, at 10:39 AM, walter wrote:
Given the ongoing discussion re virus software: in our home, we have three Macs on an Aiport network that connects to the internet via an Airport Extreme Base Station. My understanding is that the Base Station provides some level of security, inasmuch as it 'masks' our Macs behind its IP address. Am I correct in assuming that in these circumstances we are fairly secure from direct attack, and that the main route from which a virus/malicious attack could come is as an email attachment or Word Macro? And that hence, given that we never open any attachment unless we know that the person sending it, was supposed to do so, we should be fairly secure?
All email viruses these days come from someone you know, or someone who has your address in their address book, so that is no longer a safe route.
However, you have a Mac, so you can gleefully click on any email virus out now and laugh maniacally while it does ABSOLUTELY NOTHING to you.
If you have OS X version of Office, it will ask before it enables Macros in Word, and offer the chance to disable them.
There are none, nil, nada, zilch, bupkis, squatola, zero Mac e-mail viruses in the wild. There has only ever been ONE, ever, "Simpsons" <http://tinyurl.com/4y2kh> (every other Mac virus has been a file infector or bootsector virus, and those are quaint, long extinct things akin to trilobites in the Virus world.)
Probably I am wrong, and if so I am sure you will soon disabuse me of my mislpaced confidence. I've no antivirus at all, just the Panther Firewall, but of course we have File Sharing on all the time, because of the home network. I turned off Guest Access by using a little program called XGuest. Is this living dangerously?
Actually, this is living rather prudently...you turned off Guest access, you're running a firewall, and you're behind an NAT. that's pretty much what security you need.
-- Bruce Johnson University of Arizona College of Phar macy Information Technology Group
Institutions do not have opinions, merely customs
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