The Steel Guitar Forum

I very recently bought a Mac Mini for home use. I have been a PC user since Windows 95 came out and have gone through all the subsequent OSs except ME. I continue to use XP and Server 2003 in my office. I have always regularly run all the utilities as well as firewall,antivirus, spyware, malware and adware programs.
I have been told that I don't need any of these things on the Mac OS X.5. Is that true? If not, what utilities and protective programs should I be using?

Leopard (Mac OS X 10.5) comes with some pretty effective programs already built in. Here's a link to a PDF from Apple's site describing Macintosh OS X Security.

I worked for 7 years at a place that used Macs almost exclusively, and where everyone was online surfing who knows where and getting dozens of emails daily and there was never an instance of a virus or trojan or anything. Macaffee was installed on a few of the comps, but it wasn't updated often enough to really do any good. I've used Macs at home for years, too, and never had a problem. You just need to be behind a router, and if you're on a wireless network make sure it's encrypted with WPA or WPA2.

I haven't been hit with any malware on my Mac. I think that the nature of OS X makes attacks harder to execute. For example, you can't install and run an executable file on the Mac without the owner's explicit consent. The dialog granting that consent is very clear, and it requires that you enter your password. If you weren't expecting to install and run something, this should serve as a huge "red flag". In actual practice, I've never had an unexpected application even try to install itself on my Mac.

There's a different design philosophy at the very core of the OS wars. Microsoft sells application software like Office and SQLServer into corporate environments. These business tools include "hooks" that developers use to create very powerful business applications. The methods for invoking these hooks tie into the operating system itself.

Having written some code that relies on Office or SQLServer, the business programmer needs to install it on all his organization's computers. Microsoft purposely designed Windows to make this easy to do, so that they could dominate the business PC market. Unfortunately, the same mechanisms that allow easy distribution of code modules across an enterprise also allow hackers to distribute code into home PCs across the internet. It's the Law Of Unintended Consequences.

Apple, on the other hand, has no vested interest or ambitions in the area of distributed enterprise computing. This allows them to lock up their OS much tighter, and to use a simpler security model (e.g. ask for the user's permission before installing anything). That's why it's harder to write a virus that will attack Macs.

Richard Shatz wrote:I very recently bought a Mac Mini for home use. I have always regularly run all the utilities as well as firewall,antivirus, spyware, malware and adware programs.
I have been told that I don't need any of these things on the Mac OS X.5. Is that true? If not, what utilities and protective programs should I be using?

I was going to post about this earlier, but got distracted with other matters. The following should speak volumes for what every Mac user who is connected to the Internet should consider.

<small>March 19, 2008</small>
Apple Releases Huge Security Update
Apple has patched a huge number of security flaws in its latest security update released yesterday.

Apple yesterday released Security Update 2008-002 and an update to its Safari browser for both Mac OS X and Windows Vista. Both updates together patch nearly 90 vulnerabilities in Mac OS X, Safari, and third-party applications.

Approximately 20 of the fixes in Security Update 2008-002 deal with ClamAV, a third-party antivirus application that shipped with OS X Server 10.5.

Source: About Security Update 2008-002

You guys can do as you please with your computers, but, I would be running Apple Updates if I owned a Mac.

b0b;
Some of these updates affect Apache Servers running on Macs. Hint, hint.

Apple Update is turned on by default on all Macs. It prompts me whenever there are new updates. Apple's updates, like all installable software, require the user's explicit permission and password for installation.

Windows Update was at one time so flawed that virus writers used it as an entry point into home computers. I was bitten by that one once. PITA, as it's not easy to fix the Windows Update mechanism once it has been compromised.

Thanks everyone.
Is a router necessary with all these safeguards?

Richard Shatz wrote:Thanks everyone.
Is a router necessary with all these safeguards?

A NAT firewall-router is strongly advised for any Internet connection. However, if you are on dial-up internet a router won't help you. OTOH, if you are on broadband a router will make your computer harder to find, by TCP attackers. By design, NAT firewall routers block all unsolicited incoming traffic, much of which is trying to do harm to any computer that responds. Should your Mac have an unpatched TCP, or UDP vulnerability and an exploit is sent over the wires, you could be compromised.

Wiz Feinberg wrote:...patch nearly 90 vulnerabilities in Mac OS X, Safari, and third-party applications.

Most of those are updates to the Unix tools and apps in the underlying OS structure (cups, emacs, X11, a boatload for ClamAV). I like reading those details and every one says "...arbitrary execution of code..."! What the heck!

Not arguing with Wiz... keep those Software Updates current! And get something (i.e. router with firewall) between your machine and your network connection!