Jaguar, viruses and Word, oh my

L

Lyra

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:confused:

Here's the thing. A client wanted to revised the 'finished' version of his chapter in a book - something I don't usually do as it creates havoc, but I figured I could charge him for the privilege ... I pasted the chapter from Adobe InDesign into Word (yes, I know, but ALL my clients use it so I have to keep it), saved it in both Word (Office X) and as a Word 6 file. Then I sent them, using Entourage as I find Mail very slow at sending files. The client's server (at a university) blocked it because of a long list of viruses.

What's that about? My dp G4 is only a couple of months old so I've always used Jaguar on it, rarely these days using Classic and never having booted into 9: I don't have virus protection at the moment because I don't see the need (yet), but it seems unlikely that I have already acquired squillions of viruses. On the other hand, clients send me their files, as I said, all in Word, so are the little dears all infected? And if they are, should I do anything about it?

Just curious.
 
What viruses did it complain about? Did it block them because they contained or were large and could have contained something?
 
I don't know what they were - a list of numbers was rattled off at me, but I didn't register them, since I wasn't particularly concerned, except that they *were* numbers and not names. The message the other end read out to me definitely said 'contained', though, not 'could contain'.
 
I'll get them to send me a list, if they can - everyone's gone home now so it won't be until tomorrow.
 
Lyra,

Of course every glitch is possible in softwareland, but what you're saying in your first post is:

1. You're using Word documents, which are famously open to macro viruses.

2. You work on Word documents coming in from clients, so I suppose you have a lot of incoming and outgoing files, either by email or floppy.

3. You don't have any virus protection installed.

Judging by the information you gave, I would apply Ockham's Razor and come to the conclusion that yes, one or more of your clients' files/floppies/email messages was infected by a virus, which in turn infected your Mac even if it's only a few months old, and in turn infected one or more or all of the other Word documents you're working on, and this is why the university's server rejected your message: because it was infected.

If I were you, I'd install a virus scanner right away and check all of my documents and system immediately. Only if the scan reported no viruses anywhere I'd start worrying about other possible causes.

Best of luck
 
Iogotheta

Yes, I was afraid someone would say that ... although I very rarely actually work in Word, because I import everything into InDesign. The principle's the same, though, and I suspect you are right.

The client hasn't come back to me, so I imagine they think it's too much trouble to help. Good to tell they're not Mac users!

Any thoughts on the best virus scanning software for Jaguar for this sort of situation?
 
Norton does correct but incomplete job.
Virex was a good antivirus back in the days where I used one on my Performa... I'm not using any antivirus solution since I got OSX.

Disable macros (Word), VBScript (Word, Excel, Outlook Express) and you're finished with viruses on X. In brief, trash MS software and use OpenOffice for example (or simply the Word import plugin you got with InDesign!).
 
Toast - that would be good, but once in a while I set a journal that HAS to be in Word, academic journal editors mostly being conservative animals who wouldn't know a dtp app. if it bit them. If it was just books, I could junk it. I used to use AppleWorks but that doesn't seem to be an option at the moment. Whatever, I'd still need to clean up the existing client Word files that I need to hold onto until their book goes to production.

Don't like Norton any more - up until 9.x it saved my bacon dozens of time, but then it went flaky. Perhaps it'll get back on track for Jaguar ...?

Disabling VBScript as well as macros wasn't something I knew about - thanks for that.
 
Well, macros and Visual Basic script are this type of stuff that launch without you being aware of it - plus, these macros and VBScripts have commands such as "Erase all", "Delete such file" which make them dangerous for your files and system...

I am a regular poster at www.desktoppublishing.com/boards . I'm called Toast over there too; this board is DTP only, and even though I'm just an amateur, I have met many specialist over there. Try your question on this DTP board, I'm sure you'll get very, VERY pertinent answers by people who have already gone through your problem.

I'll repeat: www.desktoppublishing.com/boards

See you there !
 
I have an update. I realised I had a trial copy of Virusbarrier X on one of the CDs that came with this month's MacFormat. Ran it - no viruses reported. So unless NAV, when it arrives tomorrow, comes up with something that VBX missed, that's not the reason. I'm still curious, but now less bothered.

Toast - signed up for at desktoppublishing.com - thanks for the tip!
 
Something to consider when using a Mac and OS X is that the virus you may have is specific to M$ Office documents. I seriously doubt that a PC virus will propagate on a Macintosh. I think the whole thing can be solved by copying the text inside your M$ Word documents to BBEdit text editior, saving the work, trashing Office and all M$ Office documents on your Mac, reinstalling Office, and copying the text from the BBEdit text editor back into the M$ Word files. Don't forget to trash the documents in the "sent" folder of your email program, they're infected too. To my knowledge, there are still no Mac OS X specific virii, but M$ Office documents can be infected by macro virii and worms, regardless of the platform because the M$ macro language between Macs and PCs are identical.
 
Just to bring this thread up to date, NAV arrived yesterday - I installed and ran it and it came up with a seemingly endlesss list of macro viruses, but also several Macintosh worms, file infectors and trojan horses. Although they might not be effective in Jaguar, if I had been posting to say that I'd had Macs for years and never bothered with virus software, I'd be thinking twice - this computer is only three months old and the log shows at least three dozen worms etc. which NAV lists as 'Macintosh'. Don't know about you, but I'd rather they weren't there whether they're active or not!

Thanks for all your help with this, everyone - glad I got to the bottom of it in the end.
 
Hello all,
Just to prevent a panic from spreading, let me say this. Most people do not have a lot of files coming from Windows users in such an awful format as Word's. If you are one of those people who are in that situation, you need antivirus software. If not, I wouldn't worry. There are no OS X viruses (I think viri has pretty much gone out of common usage, even though it's the correct term... see cacti, foci, etc) and since we don't use outlook, we do not transmit anything other than macro viruses in any way other than random chance. So, don't worry too much unless you have to deal with Windows users.
 
Viruses.... one thing i have to say is...it doesn't matter how old your computer is....even if you bought it yesterday and you have been online only today....you still have a cance to get viruses...it doesn t matter how old is the computer...but how many attack you get... some people never get viruses... someother gets loads of them.


The Mac is quite safe but not perfect, especially when in contact with PCS files....that normally have more chances to have viruses...

3 rules of thumb

1) Firewall always on
2) Antivirus to check files you get from Windows Boxes
3) Be happy....it's a mac you re using
 
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