One in five Macs harboring Windows malware - report - Page 2

Is it that 20% of all Macs are infected (implying that more than 20% of all Macs run Windows) or just that 20% of the unspecified number of Macs running Windows are infected?

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Originally Posted by Gazoobee 

 

 

Sophos is actually pretty good anti-virus despite what you may read above.  Sophos is free and no one should ever *pay* for anti-virus that's for certain. 

 

*ALL* anti-virus companies subsist by spreading FUD a bout viruses and malware.  They have to to maintain their market.  If they don't scare folks with over the top stories about threats, no one would use their stuff. 

Sophos for Mac isn't very good, actually.

• The key used to encrypt some data is stored with the data, making it relatively easy to decrypt.
• The signatures Sophos selects to identify viruses are weak and can be generated independent of Sophos, making it possible to flood users with false positives.

Furthermore, Sophos makes a practice of referring to trojans as virii, officially speaking, a virus makes copies of itself and infects more computers without human intervention.  

Sophos security expert Graham Cluley has stated publicly that Sophos is unaware of any virii on OS X. He said: “Not viruses, no. The main threat for Macs is trojans, and that’s the same for Windows computers as well.  Too many people can get taken in by a tweet or a link they see somewhere. A little social engineering is all it takes to persuade someone to click something.  He confirmed that Sophos uses the word “virus” to mean “malware,” for the simple reason that, in Cluley’s words, “My Aunt Hilda has only ever heard of ‘viruses’, so that’s the language we use."

Most computer users benefit far more from using best practices (as listed in another post, previously) than Anti-Virus software.

Obvious scareware sales pitch is obvious.

While I send my unfortunate PC-owning friends basic Word documents attached to my email, sometimes, but rarely, it sets their virus-detecting software crazy. These are .docs I write myself (not something I'm passing along that I received via email). I wish I knew what it was that was causing their software to spaz out once in a great while.

Quote:

Originally Posted by bsimpsen 

Is it that 20% of all Macs are infected (implying that more than 20% of all Macs run Windows) or just that 20% of the unspecified number of Macs running Windows are infected?

If Sophos can be believed to be accurate, 1 in 5 Macs have Windows-orientated maleware on them (not necessarily active, just present). Since a healthy percentage of Mac laptops are running Windows as the prime OS (and not OSX) then you need to think of these Macs as really Windows PCs. Sophos does not mention which prime OS is on the Macs they determined were harboring Windows maleware. 

My suspicion is that Sophos has run some kind of program on a limited number of Macs that looks for certain strings of codes that Sophos believes is unique to known malware and then extrapolated that into the article headlines. The results likely include a lot of false positives.

Some comments on whether Mac users should consider Anti-Virus software:

1. Perhaps you should consider using a mail service and/or firewall that  automatically scans for viruses both incoming and outgoing.
2. If you have machines on your network using Windows, it might be prudent to check the files you upload to a shared server as a courtesy to others.
3. The gated community/walled garden protection is perhaps no longer sufficient. Because of the Mac's popularity, it is apparently more of a target now.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Macky the Macky 

 

 

If Sophos can be believed to be accurate, 1 in 5 Macs have Windows-orientated maleware on them (not necessarily active, just present). Since a healthy percentage of Mac laptops are running Windows as the prime OS (and not OSX) then you need to think of these Macs as really Windows PCs. Sophos does not mention which prime OS is on the Macs they determined were harboring Windows maleware. 

 

My suspicion is that Sophos has run some kind of program on a limited number of Macs that looks for certain strings of codes that Sophos believes is unique to known malware and then extrapolated that into the article headlines. The results likely include a lot of false positives.

Well, if we're to believe that 20% of Macs are running windows, and 20% of Macs are infected with Windows viruses, then 100% of Mac Windows installations are infected. That simply doesn't sound right.

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Originally Posted by dubdubdubw 

 

 

This is a bunch of horseshit. If they want to provide Mac users with Windows malware detection free of charge, then great: I might consider it, but I have no need or want to subsidize the Windows environment (or buy unnecessary malware detection products).

If you read the actual blog post, they _are_ providing Mac Users with malware detection free of charge:

http://www.sophos.com/en-us/products/free-tools/sophos-antivirus-for-mac-home-edition.aspx

Quote:

Originally Posted by Macky the Macky 

 

 

If Sophos can be believed to be accurate, 1 in 5 Macs have Windows-orientated maleware on them (not necessarily active, just present). Since a healthy percentage of Mac laptops are running Windows as the prime OS (and not OSX) then you need to think of these Macs as really Windows PCs. Sophos does not mention which prime OS is on the Macs they determined were harboring Windows maleware. 

Sophos would have no way of knowing that a Mac was running Windows versus a Dell running Windows. From the outside using network identifiers a Windows computer is just a Windows computer. Only when it is running OS X will the machine identify itself as a Mac. I think Sophos is suggesting that Macs running OS X have emails and pirated applications, etc that have .exe files or Word script files or saved html with exploited JS within them, that sort of thing. Malware or viruses that could be eventually passed on to a Windows machine if they were shared. While they are on the Mac they are benign.  

the main reason I use a mac is because malware made impossible to work on a windows machine... antivirus software makes everything slower on a computer... so no thanks, I won't install antivirus software on my mac...

this is not like aids, if your windows machine is infected perse you can always dump it into the trash can and get a mac... and please don't come with all that windows user mumble jumble, I'm pretty sure someone in your family

or maybe a friend told you already not to get a PC and instead get a mac... this goes to all windows user around the world!! you get what you pay for!

Quote:

Originally Posted by Suddenly Newton 

Quote:

Flashback was first discovered by the security firm Intego last September. The software attempts to trick users into installing it by appearing as Adobe's Flash Player installer package.

As if there weren't enough reasons to not ever install Flash on your Mac.

The earlier versions of FlashBack masqueraded as a Flash player but they had nothing to do with Adobe Flash.

The newer incarnations (apparently) rely upon Java exploits spread by infected sites without any further interaction from the user (other than visiting the site).

Install Flash if you want to but you'd be better off disabling Java

http://www.cultofmac.com/160060/scared-of-flashback-heres-how-to-disable-java-on-your-mac-and-stay-safe/

The general consensus is that you will be safe but at the cost of losing some functionality on some sites.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Tallest Skil 

 

Zero. Zilch. Nada. Nyet. Nein. Nope. Don't. Bother.

Ha ha, agreed on all counts. All one needs to do is to apply common sense while using the computer: have a non-admin account for everyday use (I am still wondering why Apple does not inform and guide the user to create such an account during the installation process), patch the system once security updates are available, be always suspicious when an unexpected request shows up, and do not forget that, for the time being, Java and Flash are the biggest security threats. Extra monitoring software like Little Snitch is also good.

Quote:

Originally Posted by afrodri 

 

 

If you read the actual blog post, they _are_ providing Mac Users with malware detection free of charge:

 

http://www.sophos.com/en-us/products/free-tools/sophos-antivirus-for-mac-home-edition.aspx

That phrase made me grin:

Stops all threats, even those designed for Windows.

They see that Mac users do not react to the calls to install anti-virus software. And as the Mac market share increases, they see it coming and they fear it: the Windows world will have one more front to deal with, that of malware patiently waiting in Macs the moment to attack. So in a desperate act, they give away anti-virus software for the Mac. Interesting.

So what is DNSencrypt used for? What is it protecting and what are the potential dangers of NOT encrypting DNS?  Sounds like a hosting issue here...

If the Mac running OS X is not actively capable of delivering a payload to a non-infected machine, then that Mac is not infected with malware.  End of story.