Great info for all of us especially coming from a professional environment, Bruce, thanks.
Priorities are important in data security. Even on Windows the only virus I ever had was the 'kak.worm' many years ago, and it didn't infect anything because I was still using text only for my email. It was interesting dissecting it to figure out how it worked, a very complex combination of programming languages as I recall. (I got kicked off a JavaScript forum for asking too many questions about how the kak.worm worked, I guess they thought I was dangerous!) I have had several hard drive failures though, I still have one with 9 months of data stuck on it that needs a new main board to resurrect it, so for me at least, hardware problems are the more immediate threat. This modern ransomware threat is scary, I have a separate, removable external hard drive for weekly backup for this reason on the PC server, just wish I could get Windows to recognize the mirrored raid on the main drive! Well, I wish I could get the wife to agree to work on MacOS, it was setup as a Hackintosh but I removed MacOS as it was an additional layer of complication she didn't want and a Hackintosh is not always stable either.... Russell Courtenay Sent from my iPhone > On Nov 18, 2016, at 9:13 AM, Bruce Johnson <john...@pharmacy.arizona.edu> > wrote: > > >> On Nov 18, 2016, at 7:02 AM, Bill Spencer <wspen...@jhu.edu> wrote: >> >> Hi there: My wife has lately been getting spam emails, allegedly from her >> email provider, which include links to click to resolve "problems"--you know >> the drill. She has not taken the bait, but when I contacted the provider on >> her behalf to triple-check that her account is still in the clear, I got >> quite a lengthy sales pitch for all sorts of Mac-related anti-virus and >> security stuff that they want us to buy. I have never really worried about >> that sort of thing in the past, but times do change and I thought I would >> see what the received wisdom is nowadays about the need for such >> programs...and if there is a need, what to install. She's on 10.10.5 and I'm >> on 10.11.something. > > So long as her system is set to update automatically, Apple routinely pushes > out new definitions for their built-in anti-malware stuff so there’s that > protection first off. > > The overwhelmingly vast majority of malware out there still targets Windows > (and increasingly Android) so a security suite for OS X is, in my > professional opinion, largely unnecessary. If you want a more detailed > analysis mention what they’re offering. (If it says Intego or Norton’s > anywhere in the name it’s garbage, IMO) > > If you want to pay for a decent one, ClamXAV is inobtrusive, low on resource > use and flexible. > > <http://www.clamxav.com> It used to be shareware now it’s commercial, $30 for > any computer you own. ($21 if either of you are associated with an EDU > institution) > > My University provides us with Sophos Antivirus, which is also not half-bad, > but requires an annual subscription. > > As our UA policy (especially in a college that routinely deals with > HIPAA-protected data) requires that all computers, regardless of OS run some > sort of antivirus, I’ve gotten ClamXAv, mainly because it lets me manually > scan any mounted volume or folder, whereas Sophos only protects the boot > volume. Since I have to routinely mount ‘foreign' disks this is useful. > > But any antivirus or antimalware software is necessarily reactive; they only > protect against threats they know of, and most of the current threats aren’t > viruses, but ransomware, keyloggers to steal banking credentials, and ‘fake > antivirus’ offers. > > Apple’s taken some big strides ‘under the hood’ in 10.11 and 10.12 in locking > down and protecting the system to guard against this kind of thing, too, as a > proactive step…even root doesn’t have access to some parts of the OS without > special authentication being provided, but your userland files are > susceptible to ransomware encryption. Fortunately none of the known variants > are currently able to encrypt Time Machine volumes, so it’s not a major deal > for Mac users if you’re backing up your stuff. > > Vigilance against the phishing (and they’re ALWAYS phishing emails, no matter > how official they sound), and keeping good backups are, in the end, better > than any anti-malware solution, and it sounds like your wife is well versed > in the ‘delete key’ method of dealing with them :-) > > Backing up your stuff is important, because drive failure, computer failure, > damage or theft is much more likely than a malware infection. > > -- > Bruce Johnson > University of Arizona > College of Pharmacy > Information Technology Group > > Institutions do not have opinions, merely customs > > -- > You received this message because you are a member of the iMac Group, a group > for those using Apple iMacs and eMacs. > The list FAQ is at http://lowendmac.com/imac/list.shtml and our netiquette > guide is at http://www.lowendmac.com/lists/netiquette.shtml > To post to this group, send email to imaclist@googlegroups.com > To leave this group, send email to imaclist+unsubscr...@googlegroups.com > For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/imaclist > > --- > You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups > "iMac Group" group. > To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an > email to imaclist+unsubscr...@googlegroups.com. > For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/d/optout. -- You received this message because you are a member of the iMac Group, a group for those using Apple iMacs and eMacs. 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