Viruses on OS X

[TommyWillB]

For VPC to infect a Macintosh outside of the VPC Shared Folder, the virus would have to be specifically written to handle UNIX-style directories -- something that Windows virii are not written to do. The first time that virus tried to "backslash" its way into another directory, it would fail. The Macintosh, outside of the Shared Directory, is completely inaccessible to any Windows virus.

WRONG!

Virtual PC takes care of this translation to make the mounted volume look like a normal Windows mapped drive.

[ex2bot]

I just use one of the free Windows security programs (can't remember which at the moment - probably Zone Alarm) to completely block access to and from the Internet for VPC. All my Internet surfing, downloading, emailing is done with OS X. Haven't had any problems yet.

I don't use VPC for anything except for fun (I'm fascinated by emulators), so I'm not going to buy an Internet security program to protect a virtual machine.

Also, I only share a single subfolder.

Doug

[WeeZer51402]

With all this talk of viruses I'm trying to look into a decent anti-virus scanner. Right now I'm using clamXav, last night it found 8 viruses in my home folder, obviously windows viruses. However just because there aren't any OS X viruses yet it could be possible to create one. What I'm looking for is a good virus scanner. What I would like is something that can scan the entire startup disk, one of clamav's downfalls is that it can't. Also I would prefer a cocoa app. If it could be free that would certainly help. What has everbody else had good luck with?

[MBHockey]

I run intego virusbarrier scans once a month when the new definitions are released, but i have yet to find one virus

[ex2bot]

Virus scanning for OS X? Me? No. Not until one actually appears.

Doug

[WeeZer51402]

Well my concern is not protecting against an OS X virus, as I am aware that such a virus does not exist. What I am trying to avoid is passing one on to some unfortunate windows user. Also it doesn't hurt to have a mechanism in place in the case that a virus is ever created for OS X.

[Captain Code]

My view is it's pretty hard to pass on a windows virus to windows users unless you are deliberatly forwarding strange emails to people.

I don't see why I should slow down my computer by running resource sucking AV software if I don't have to.

[Lt Major Burns]

how impossible is it to create a virus for osX - someone can hack everything. osX is hackable - how hackable?