On Nov 27, 2005, at 6:02 AM, Bob Shell wrote:
On Nov 27, 2005, at 8:38 AM, Godfrey DiGiorgi wrote:
I'm running Mac OS X. I just looked at all the PDML digests I've
received since Monday (110 of them) and see no attachments of any
kind. Nothing has triggered any of the virus warnings I've got on
my system so far.
How would I know if any of these digests had a virus in them?
No attachment, no virus. Looks like your ISP or e-mail client is
stripping away attachments, as it should.
Neither my ISP nor email client application (Mail.app) are stripping
attachments. I have received many emails with Windows viruses
attached ... they neither run nor can be propagated without my
knowledge on this system.
If no attachment means no virus, then my conclusion is that these
digests are not what is propagating a virus. None of the PDML
individual posts I've received have had any attachments either.
One of the good things about being a Mac-head is that there are
proportionally so few of us that idiots who write virus programs
don't have any real incentive to write them for Mac. Mac is not
immune to virus attacks, but they are few and far between. I've
been using Mac since 1994 and only got hit with one virus in all
that time. It was a nasty one, though. It didn't come via e-mail
but on a floppy that one of my writers sent to me. It trashed my
hard drive. If you don't have Norton Antivirus on your Mac, get it
without delay.
That must have been Mac OS 7, 8 or 9. Floppy drive? I think the last
system I owned that even had a floppy drive was a Power Mac 8600,
circa 1997-1998!
There have been a total of 11 identified viruses/security openings
that could be used against Mac OS X since 2001. All have been blocked
by Security Updates from Apple within 48 hours of being identified.
I've never received even one virus in an actual attack. I've fixed
more problems caused by poorly written antivirus software (as a Mac
OS X system administrator, I get to see these things regularly...)
and recommend strongly against using add-ons because of that.
Of course, you should also configure Mac OS X to be security
conscious ...
1) create an administrator account to administer the system and
install application software.
2) turn on all the security features built into the operating system
(the default configuration as
delivered by Apple does not have them enabled).
3) convert all user accounts to operate in User mode without
administrator access.
4) Set up wireless base stations to require a MAC address for systems
that will connect through them.
5) Turn on WEP 128-bit or WPA Personal/Enterprise encryption for
wireless communications.
6) Always install Security Updates released by Apple in a timely manner.
7) Be sure the wired connection to the outside networks are properly
firewalled against attacks.
Godfrey
