Virus
Prevention
In the past, Macintoshes seemed almost immune to viruses. Due to the fact that macs were the minority, in the personal computer world, fewer people bothered to write viruses for them. Also, the Macintosh's software was not as easy to write viruses for. However, in recent years, with the increase in the Mac's marketshare, and the cross-platform capabilities being built into the Macintosh, it has become much easier to create viruses for the Mac. Therefore, "safe computing" has become more important than ever before.
- Invest in a good virus protection program. Many people are familiar with a wonderful freeware application by John Norstadt, named Disinfectant. Unfortunately, due to the prolific creation of new viruses, Mr. Norstadt has discontinued his support and creation of this program. Any version you may have is now obsolete, and will not protect your computer from any of the newest viruses. Therefore, it is wise to purchase one of the commercial antiviral programs on the market. The most popular antiviral applications are Dr. Solomon's Virex, and Symantec's Norton Antivirus.
- Install your selected
application, and use it regularly. Major antiviral software vendors
post monthly updates on their websites, to cover the newest viruses.
We advise diligently downloading these updaters and using them.
- Do not share applications from your friend's computers. Aside
from the fact that software piracy is illegal, when you share software,
you could be sharing viruses, as well.
- When inserting disks (floppies, zips, syquests, CDs - especially
those created by someone with a CD writer), run your antiviral program
on them (most antiviral programs have a setting to perform this function,
automatically).
- Don't assume that a CD is unaffected, even if it came from
a reputable company. One of the Mac's most loved magazines inadvertently
mailed out thousands of infected CDs near the end of last year.
- One simple way to avoid contracting the "AutoStart Worm",
is to disable (uncheck) "Enable Audio CD AutoPlay" and "Enable
CD-ROM AutoPlay" in your Quicktime Settings Control Panel (this
is only necessary for users of Quicktime versions 2.0 and higher).
- Don't fall for all those email virus hoaxes you receive. Macintoshes
can NOT be infected by reading an email. If you receive an email warning,
describing a potential viral disaster, visit one of the websites below,
before passing along your information.
- Even the infamous Melissa virus, which could be spread by Macs
(or any computer) using Microsoft Outlook for email, could not infect
a Mac.
- Even the infamous Melissa virus, which could be spread by Macs
(or any computer) using Microsoft Outlook for email, could not infect
a Mac.
- Even though an email cannot infect your Macintosh, email attachments can be dangerous. Do not open an e-mail attachment, unless you know who it's from. Then, even if you know, test it with your antiviral software, first
There are several excellent resources for virus information on the web:
One of the most extensive informational sites is the Symantec Antivirus Research Center at http://www.symantec.com/avcenter/.
Dr. Solomon's also maintains a highly informative site at http://www.drsolomon.com/products/virex/zoo/genmac.html
Another excellent site is http://www.macvirus.com/ .
For highly detailed virus info, try http://antivirus.miningco.com/library/blenmac.htm.
And more detail is available at http://www.datafellows.com/vir-info/
