Report That OS X Snow Leopard May Include Antivirus 335
File this firmly in the "rumor" category for now. the JoshMeister writes (in the third person) "Mac antivirus company Intego broke the story this morning that Apple is apparently including antivirus functionality in its upcoming operating system, Snow Leopard. But which antivirus engine is Apple using? Security researcher Joshua Long discusses the likely candidates."
I use ClamXAV (Score:5, Informative)
Re:AV for consumers will be free (Score:5, Informative)
I don't think that would help, mad-clickers implicitly trust everything.
Re:good for Apple (Score:5, Informative)
Immune? No. Reasonably secure by design, yes.
Re:Linked Twitter Feed? Reporting in the Third Per (Score:3, Informative)
Re:Virus on MAC ? (Score:2, Informative)
Safari will do this for installer packages and mount .dmg files if "Open safe files after opening" is enabled.
Given that we've had the golden master for weeks.. (Score:5, Informative)
...and no such thing exists there, this would seem to be completely made up bullshit.
Re:Nonsense (Score:4, Informative)
Heck, maybe it's also why Linux virus scanners exist. Besides the oddball Mac trojan, the Mac AV probably keeps up with PC viruses as well. Not because they can run them, but to avoid being a "carrier". If you use the Windows firesharing, many worms seek out the shares. It's possible those worms may find an open Mac share and infect files in there. The Mac won't get infected, but Windows PCs accessing those shares can become infected. Better the Mac catch it and quarantine...
Hmm.. Speculation on a rumour from unkown source. (Score:5, Informative)
So, we have a Slashdot story speculating about the outcome of a story on another site which uses unknown, and not necessarily reliable source, about a possible feature in an unreleased OS.
Can we please wait until there is real evidence before shouting that the sky's falling please.
Oh, sorry, this is Slashdot! ;-)
As for the article: *IF* it is true, fine! Who cares what anti-virus engine it uses as long as it works and is ready for any dangerous malware which does come along for MacOS?
(And for those who wish to gloat, no OS is fully immune, especially from the security hole at the keyboard. Why does Linux need an anti-virus product like ClamAV?! Linux doesn't have any viruses.... ;-))
Re:Virus on MAC ? (Score:3, Informative)
There's been multiple viruses using failures in the system to install themselves on the apple hardware without any user input.
My favorite is the iphone exploit where somebody could root your device & record everything barely by sending an IM :)
Mac OS X Security Architecture (Score:5, Informative)
Re:Virus on MAC ? (Score:3, Informative)
You can find reputable OSS programs on Windows and Mac also.
Re:Virus on MAC ? (Score:4, Informative)
The mac "culture" is much more willing to purchase a $20 app that fills a tidy hole in their system. This is both an emergent behavior and a forced behavior. Forced because the ecosystem for macs is a fraction of that for windows, the number of cracking or hacking groups targeting pay-for apps is much lower. Emergent because, the already high barrier to entry (iTax) is locking out a large amount of those who are inclined to buy a $300 PC and fill it with warez. Both of these factors also work to suppress the creation of an equivalent to the spyware-infested freeware app "scene" present on Windows.
Re:Virus on MAC ? (Score:3, Informative)
http://www.versiontracker.com/macosx/ [versiontracker.com]
http://mac.softpedia.com/ [softpedia.com]
http://www.opensourcemac.org/ [opensourcemac.org]
http://www.macorchard.com/ [macorchard.com]
http://www.macupdate.com/ [macupdate.com]
I've purchased 3 apps since switching to Mac last year. VMWare Fusion, an encoding app, and another to sync my gmail calendars to OS X Mail's calendars. Everything else I've needed has been free via Open Source sites found above. Gimp and OpenOffice handle the other basics. Why would you need warez?
Re:Virus on MAC ? (Score:3, Informative)
Just a FYI, you can now sync your osx calendar to google via calDav for both read and write. I didn't use iCalendar until I found this out because I wasn't going to buy an app to sync them.