18th May 2006, 3:21 PM
There in fact are virii out there for the Mac (including OSX). And, there are antivirus programs too.
Moving right along though, the only way to really get attacked by a virus is to LET it do the damage. There are other viruses out there that can actually worm their way INTO a system FROM THE INTERNET, and these have specifically targetted Windows because that's the one with those vulnerabilities. Fortunatly, SP2 patches these issues, for the most part. They should (SHOULD I say) be fully resolved in the next OS (the one I'm not interested in).
As for Macs, they seem pretty immune to worms, but they aren't immune to virii.
Ever heard of dancing bunny syndrome? Allow me to explain. Any virus can get into an otherwise protected system if a user turns off those defenses to let it get access. And, a user WILL do that if they are promised they can see a dancing bunny if they do it. It'll be part of the "documented installation procedure". "In order to see the dancing bunny, when you see this dialog: "Warning, this will allow the application administrative access. Are you sure? No really, are you SURE? You really shouldn't do this for any application you download online, and if it says anything about seeing a cute bunny, I would highly recommend just ignoring it. Seriously! LISTEN TO ME!" click "Allow" to see the dancing bunny.
People will click allow. Currently, the majority of virus infections in XP are from two things. The first is people installing SP1 or below on a machine and going online to download SP2. The problem is SP1 and below are vulnerable to the "install on your machine automatically just for being plugged IN" worms, the sort that simply weren't even possible back during the days of DOS so almost within minutes of getting it installed the system is already infected. The solution is either burning a disk with the SP2 install program on it and not connecting your system to the network until it is installed, or slipstreaming the SP2 install files into the install disk files and burning a sp2 install disk (which means I really like the "slipsteam" tech MS decided to implement because this is a lot less time consuming), but the problem is, of course, most users aren't going to be aware of this and can't be expected to, and MS has no feasible way of informing the majority of users to do this. They just have to accept that the past is going to be around for a while.
The second and the more dangerous of the two (due to the fact that this happens more often than installing or reinstalling the OS) is simply the dancing bunny syndrome of people using a fully secure system and deciding to drop their guard just to see the dancing bunny. This is basically social engineering type virus infiltration. It only works because people aren't educated enough to know better. Problem is, this does not just apply to Windows like the first one. This applies to EVERY OS. No matter how secure the system, if there is a way to drop the security (and there really HAS to be because people need to be able to use and customize a general purpose OS the way they want so there need to be ways to do this in place), if a user wants to see the dancing bunny, they will click and jump through whatever hoops the system throws at them to do it. It is really amazing how smart a user can suddenly become when it is time to destroy their computers. Part of it is the fact that a lot of these viruses (and a trojen horse IS a kind of virus, so is a worm, and all the other new fangled words they have for different types, and if you ask me spyware is also a form of virus, I define virus as any application you install that forces undesirable effects on the computer without your knowledge) will provide a little guide on how to disable the security. For example, if you want someone to grant admin access to an application, walk them through getting the admin access box up and typing in their admin password.
This is the final step in security as I mentioned before. The users can't be expected to remain ignorant when they have a system with such customizability before them. Customizability means problems, and users need to have at least a basic understanding of what a virus is, the security systems in place, and the ways in which a virus is going to try to trick them into letting it install itself.
Moving right along though, the only way to really get attacked by a virus is to LET it do the damage. There are other viruses out there that can actually worm their way INTO a system FROM THE INTERNET, and these have specifically targetted Windows because that's the one with those vulnerabilities. Fortunatly, SP2 patches these issues, for the most part. They should (SHOULD I say) be fully resolved in the next OS (the one I'm not interested in).
As for Macs, they seem pretty immune to worms, but they aren't immune to virii.
Ever heard of dancing bunny syndrome? Allow me to explain. Any virus can get into an otherwise protected system if a user turns off those defenses to let it get access. And, a user WILL do that if they are promised they can see a dancing bunny if they do it. It'll be part of the "documented installation procedure". "In order to see the dancing bunny, when you see this dialog: "Warning, this will allow the application administrative access. Are you sure? No really, are you SURE? You really shouldn't do this for any application you download online, and if it says anything about seeing a cute bunny, I would highly recommend just ignoring it. Seriously! LISTEN TO ME!" click "Allow" to see the dancing bunny.
People will click allow. Currently, the majority of virus infections in XP are from two things. The first is people installing SP1 or below on a machine and going online to download SP2. The problem is SP1 and below are vulnerable to the "install on your machine automatically just for being plugged IN" worms, the sort that simply weren't even possible back during the days of DOS so almost within minutes of getting it installed the system is already infected. The solution is either burning a disk with the SP2 install program on it and not connecting your system to the network until it is installed, or slipstreaming the SP2 install files into the install disk files and burning a sp2 install disk (which means I really like the "slipsteam" tech MS decided to implement because this is a lot less time consuming), but the problem is, of course, most users aren't going to be aware of this and can't be expected to, and MS has no feasible way of informing the majority of users to do this. They just have to accept that the past is going to be around for a while.
The second and the more dangerous of the two (due to the fact that this happens more often than installing or reinstalling the OS) is simply the dancing bunny syndrome of people using a fully secure system and deciding to drop their guard just to see the dancing bunny. This is basically social engineering type virus infiltration. It only works because people aren't educated enough to know better. Problem is, this does not just apply to Windows like the first one. This applies to EVERY OS. No matter how secure the system, if there is a way to drop the security (and there really HAS to be because people need to be able to use and customize a general purpose OS the way they want so there need to be ways to do this in place), if a user wants to see the dancing bunny, they will click and jump through whatever hoops the system throws at them to do it. It is really amazing how smart a user can suddenly become when it is time to destroy their computers. Part of it is the fact that a lot of these viruses (and a trojen horse IS a kind of virus, so is a worm, and all the other new fangled words they have for different types, and if you ask me spyware is also a form of virus, I define virus as any application you install that forces undesirable effects on the computer without your knowledge) will provide a little guide on how to disable the security. For example, if you want someone to grant admin access to an application, walk them through getting the admin access box up and typing in their admin password.
This is the final step in security as I mentioned before. The users can't be expected to remain ignorant when they have a system with such customizability before them. Customizability means problems, and users need to have at least a basic understanding of what a virus is, the security systems in place, and the ways in which a virus is going to try to trick them into letting it install itself.
"On two occasions, I have been asked [by members of Parliament], 'Pray, Mr. Babbage, if you put into the machine wrong figures, will the right answers come out?' I am not able to rightly apprehend the kind of confusion of ideas that could provoke such a question." ~ Charles Babbage (1791-1871)