Can Mac computers get porn viruses?
I share an iMac with a roomate-- and I know he is on some unfamiliar ghetto porn websites (just kidding), but he does look at porn from some of the more "popular porn sites," (apparently these are: Redtube, YouJizz, and Eskimotube, lol) where you don't download the videos but just look at them online.. Anyways, I know he uses Limewire (not really anymore), but maybe he downloaded a few pornos from that back when he was on it (I dont know, just guessing). We have always had popup blocker on I think, and clear Firefoxes cookies frequently. Either way-- our computer may not have any virus at all, it just acts slower than usual (about 3 years old, and most of the hard drive is taken up-- so that could be why, but my friends old iBook lasted 7 years!). None the less, I would like to get the system checked to see if we have a virus.. Are Mac computers (Mac OSX) susceptible to such viruses? We use Firefox-- also, is there a system check for APPLE computers that we can run to see if anything bad is detected? Once we do this, will just clearing the file in the trash erase the problem, or no? Thanks for dealing with all the questions
Do Macs get viruses ever?
Fanoaa gave you the closest answer to the truth. If you look up the Wikipedia definition of a computer virus, and you agree with it, then there are no MacOS X viruses. You cannot catch something that doesn't exist and hasn't existed since 2006. There are over 1,000,000 forms of Windows malware including trojans & viruses. There are 8 (yep, 8 total) Mac trojans. They are not viruses. You have to download illegal or fake software (like torrents of Photoshop CS4 or codecs to view porn) and then install them with your admin password. You cannot catch anything on a Mac by visiting a website, opening an email or clicking on an ad like you can on a WIndows computer. 99.6% of all malware is written for Windows computers. Less than 1/10 of 1 percent of all malware being written is for Macintosh computers.
How do you deal with a virus on a Mac?
I generally don’t run Mac OS X Server to serve out disk space to Windows machines. But I’ve done so in the past.When one of the Windows machines gets a virus, and infects a file on the disk share, it’s generally quarantined, so that it doesn’t infect the other Windows machines that are using the Mac as their file server.I identify the switch port for the Windows machine that wrote the virus into the file, and then I partition it off the network at the switch.When the person who has the Windows machine gets upset that they can no longer access the Internet, they bring the machine into the IT department, who tells them they have a virus, and then uses Windows antivirus software to disinfect the Windows machine.The person using the machine is usually in finance, or an executive, because the first can’t live without a working version of Excel (the Excel Microsoft ported to Mac OS X has performance issues), and the second can’t live without Powerpoint and Word (because everyone mails them things in that format, instead of a portable format, like PDF).So the finance person or the executive gets their antivirus software updated, and they get cautioned against connecting their computer to unprotected networks.After that, you reenable the switch port, and they have their Internet connection back up and running.Then you wait around for the next person with a Windows machine to write another virus up to the Mac file server.Lather, rinse, repeat.
How can I download videos on my computer without getting a virus? I have a MacBook Pro.
Firstly, there are no viruses for the Mac, in spite of what Kaspersky and MacAfee will claim (they are trying to sell you a useless product that only installs inertia into your systems), but, secondly, there are no end of pieces of crap out there that can AFFECT, not INFECT, the performance of your web browsers. They are known as adware. There are also mild variations of ransomware that is simple to get rid of… if you know how.All that said, best to keep well away from sites that carry that sort of junk: p and p - porn and piracy.Best not to get the crap rather than have to deal with it afterwards. Leave the viruses to Windows and don’t worry about them.
Do macs get viruses?
While it's possible in theory, in reality they don't because it is very difficult to break through Mac security. There are no known viruses that affect Mac OS X. Zero. Many have tried. All have failed. Anyone who thinks I'm wrong is welcome to post documentation of at least one verified Mac virus. No computer security company has documented one to date. The computer security companies (Symantec, McAfee, etc.) have been trying to come up with proof of concepts to show that Macs need their software too, but despite their expertise and resources, the best they've been able to come up with is a couple of trojans (a step below a virus) that couldn't manage to propagate beyond a local network. One group of researchers even got so desperate that they faked an exploit on a Macbook. See the link below. Others are so desperate to claim the Mac just doesn't get attention that they disprove their own theory with the attention they pay to it. See the post by 'slander' above. Edit: Chad, Mac users shouldn't be protecting PC users by wasting our processing cycles scanning for their viruses. If you want to help a PC user, get them to switch to the Mac.
How do I know if my Mac has a virus?
Macs can get viruses and do get viruses. But there are not very many and they are not as serious as the ones that are on Windows. Some people will tell you this is because the Mac doesn't have the the large installed base of windows. But this is not the reason why. The reason why there are less viruses in the MacOSX today is because Apple has really good mechanisms for patching the MacOSX quickly and easily when a virus does appear and because down deep MacOSX is based on a very secure architecture called UNIX. Out-of-the-box Mac OSX does not enable root user account (although you can over ride this) and is really good about requiring a username and a password in order to do much of anything to the operating system itself. This means that the virus does not have access to a lot of the lower level things that can do a lot of damage on the vast majority of macs. Because of this a lot of virus writers don't even bother to write things that work on the MacOS. Windows doesn't share these features and is therefore much less secure than the Mac which makes it a major target for virus writers who get thier jollies doing evil things to computers. Window out of the box is not as secure or well written. Microsoft has traditionally been much slower about patching it's systems and a lot of the windows install base are running out of date versions of the OS. You have to do a lot of work to secure a windows system and a huge percentage of the user base doesn't bother to do the work. Because of this millions and millions of Windows machines are open to viral attacks. This is led to a situation where the general public has the false belief that Macs don't get viruses. So while you can't say that the MacOS doesn't have viruses you can say that the Mac OS has very few of them that you need to be afraid of and they get felt with quickly.
Why do people believe that Macs don't get viruses?
Because if you own a Mac, the chances are you have never seen any malware. Pretty sure than in running a bunch of Macs since 2002, I have never seen a true virus.Windows used to be a virus hell-hole. Things have gotten much better with changes to the OS. But Windows users still have to be extra careful to avoid malware.So in real world usage, Mac users are far less likely to encounter problems.The reasons are…The dominant Safari and Chrome browsers are reasonably secure against web-based attacks.Macs don’t ship with Flash and Java (primary sources of malware)The Mac App store means many users get software which is safe. Rather than from untrusted sources.By default, apps won’t run if they are unsigned.Stuff like sandboxing and address space randomisation reduces the likelihood of malware doing damage.XProtect is installed on all Macs and disables known malware.User accounts and Unix privileges limit easy changes to the system.But the most important is.The global malware community has way more invested in Windows and so the vast majority of malware is targeted at Windows computers.