It's splitting hairs, but a Word macro virus is not a "Mac virus". There were a handful of Mac virii back in the pre-OS X days, but they were all handled rather readily by the free Disinfectant. There have been sporadic claims of a virii that affect Mac OS X since it came out, but once you dug down into the details what you find is that they were more accurately classified as trojans. Sticking to the strict definition of a virus, I am fairly certain that there are no confirmed ones on Mac OS X (AV vendors sales tactics notwithstanding). That isn't to say that they aren't possible or that there aren't some clever folks that haven't been discovered, of course. There are vulnerabilities, as there are with any system, and I am certainly not saying that you have no need to ever be concerned if you have a Mac. However, when you compare the number of virii and other types of malware that affect Windows versus those that affect Mac OS X, it is a drop in the ocean.
And as for the macro virus situation, I would point out that most of Word macro virii exposed other issues on Windows or targeted specific Windows files and were a non-issue if executed on a Mac. Nonetheless, there are a couple of solutions. My preferred solution is not use Microsoft Office at all (it is not standard on a Mac and ridiculously expensive). You can also use the free ClamAV, as I indicated before. I understand that this is a Windows administration list, and that is my job as well. But every time someone asks something about supporting a Mac, there is a lot of FUD thrown around. On this particular topic, yes it is true that there is a small amount of malware that can affect Macs. However, with a little bit of common sense, you can pretty much use a Mac and not have to worry about it. That may not be true a week or a month from now, but it is disingenous to suggest that there is some equivalency in the threats against Windows and Mac OS X. -----Original Message----- From: Ben Scott [mailto:[email protected]] Sent: Friday, May 01, 2009 2:56 PM To: NT System Admin Issues Subject: Re: MAC AV On Fri, May 1, 2009 at 10:55 AM, Jon Harris <[email protected]> wrote: > Haven't the Mac users in your network told you? Mac's don't get > malware of any type. I had a client once who was an all Mac shop for a while. They believed that. We were hired to install a Windows server and some Windows desktops for stuff what was 'doze only. We, of course, installed a managed anti-virus solution. It was rather interesting to watch the Windows anti-virus quarantine every pre-existing Word document they tried to open, as every single last one was infected with a Word macro virus. But Mac's don't get viruses. They blamed the PCs. -- Ben ~ Finally, powerful endpoint security that ISN'T a resource hog! ~ ~ <http://www.sunbeltsoftware.com/Business/VIPRE-Enterprise/> ~ ~ Finally, powerful endpoint security that ISN'T a resource hog! ~ ~ <http://www.sunbeltsoftware.com/Business/VIPRE-Enterprise/> ~
