Viruses affecting Macs

[TheForce]

On this past trip I decided to take my Mac along. I had a need for two laptops because I was going to use my Dell for video editing doing capturing, and rendering tasks in batch mode to get a jump start on my work while away. But I don't like using the PC for those tasks and also surfing the web and other stuff for the evening in the hotel room. The MacBook Pro easily recognized the Hotel's wifi and I was on very quick to surf the web, and I even downloaded the sling box player for Mac and it worked great. In fact my MacBook Pro has better speakers than my Dell so that made using it for watching DVD's and sling box even better. Only one busy hotel had poor internet speed while the others were running at 1.5 Mbs, similar to my Verizon EVDOA card.

But I was always afraid to use my PC on hotel wifi because of security even with sharing shut off.

Is the Mac really immune to mischief and hackers, viruses and trojans as people say it is? What cautions should I be taking with my Macbook Pro the next time I use it to access the internet with a hotel wifi?


PS- I do not use the Mac for e-mail and do not plan to.

 

[koolbean]

Don,
Macs are not to much different than Windows PCs when it comes to hacking or stealing files from you computer. If sharing is turned on your Mac your files will be visible to Macs and Windows computers. Turn sharing off and make sure you have a password set to prevent connecting just in case you forget to turn it off. Nothing is 100% when it comes to this but I think you be pretty safe doing what you do. Viruses are a different story. Most ( If not all; depends on who you ask) that affect a Mac are Word and Excel Macro viruses. If you don't use Word or Exel on your Mac you have very little to worry about. I have ran Macs for sometime and NEVER had any trouble; and I do go to a few places on the net that you probably would catch something But I run Windows on it for gaming. The other day I was on the net in windows mode and even with Trend installed I caught something that upon reboot scrapped windows. I went back to the same site, got the same file on the Mac and had no issue. The virus must have got in when I ran the .exe; Macs have no clue what a .exe file is. Go check out this page for a bit about Macs and viruses:
Mac Viruses By The Numbers - Word Macro: 553, Classic Mac: 26, OS X: Zero || The Mac Observer

Good luck!

 

[BigTimMN]

there are no viruses as there isn't the hackers with a chip on their shoulders trying to exploit every possible issue in the code, like they do with Microsoft.

Its not that the Mac is immune to viruses... its just not being exploited, as most people dont think Apple is "The Evil Empire".

 

[docthy]

what marketshar is a Mac

MacS are just 8-10% in the us. imagine the world. is really a misconception, anything can be hack, hence, hack is make a device do something different from what it is suppose to do. ei, a calc, to write a name. Are you going to expend 2000+ on a mac, and try to hack it. or 350+ on a dell and yell at windows? you got the point. have you ever heard about the virus that almost destroy sun microsystem OS, solarys, this is another example.: eat me!, not really.

 

[Jared Twomey]

vpn... then you dont have to worry about it at all

 

[rglore]

Macs can't be easily infected because the OS always asks for your administrator password to install anything. I've used mine at many hotels with no issues. I even click on suspicious emails just to see what the scam is and no infections.

 

[TheForce]

I have parallels and windows XP on the mac too but don't see a need to use that for internet so I just don't launch parallels while connected. I would use excel and word in windows mode however. Not in Mac as I don't own the software.

I'm not sure I had sharing off but I will check on that next time. I'm not real knowledgeable on how to navigate around the Mac so if I plan to use this at hotels in the future, I'll need to get more familiar with it.

Thanks for the tips.


BTW- I was not so much worried about stealing files since the Mac has nothing on it worth stealing. I only have Final Cut Studio software installed. I was more worried about other planting harm on my mac that would cause problems. I don't buy the theory that harm doesn't exist because people don't think Apple is the Evil Empire. All it takes is one capable vandal and I'm in trouble. So, its best to keep the doors locked so to speak, which makes it more difficult.