checking for viruses on Ventura MacOS

You don't have a virus and the notification is false. Check your calendar subscriptions, there'll be one that's coughing these out.

Same basic issue as Calendar spam.

If these are sliding in the from the top right of the screen, a site you visited has given itself permission to send push notifications. Everything you're seeing is nothing but a scam.

Open Safari's preferences. Click on the Websites tab and then scroll down to Notifications. Clear any entries in the right hand window. You might find something similar in the Pop-up Windows heading below that. Block any you don't recognize.

Then if you want, uncheck the box below as shown here.

I personally can't think of any reason why I would ever want any website to push notices to me.

How to check Mac for viruses

Good article here:- https://www.imore.com/how-check-mac-viruses

At the end of the article it says .......

The above tips are great for occasional issues but it's generally a good idea to download and purchase a highly-rated third-party antivirus tool for ultimate security. Use it to find and remove any dangerous files then keep using the software to be protected in the future. Prevention is always better than cure and having a good antivirus tool running in the background will give you peace of mind, and potentially save you from a lot of hassle.

Good article here:- https://www.imore.com/how-check-mac-viruses

At the end of the article it says .......

The above tips are great for occasional issues but it's generally a good idea to download and purchase a highly-rated third-party antivirus tool for ultimate security. Use it to find and remove any dangerous files then keep using the software to be protected in the future. Prevention is always better than cure and having a good antivirus tool running in the background will give you peace of mind, and potentially save you from a lot of hassle.

This is one of the more common debeates among inexperienced Mac users, and especially ones that have come over from Windows. Against that paragraph - and more about that later - is the advice of every single experienced Mac user on here: don't install third part AV software. Why? Apart from being essentially pointless, it's expensive and interferes with the Mac's own independent security. Pointless because the OS is now on locked volumes that only Apple can access, and so no virus can access the OS. This is in addition to the XProtect system that is constantly updated by Apple.

Also, what do these apps protect you from? They don't protect you from new threats, only ones that exist now. So, if a new threat comes along they have to update their databases for their app before you are "protected", which Apple is also doing. Against that you have the constant stream of false positive reports that are triggered when these apps meet a file they don't recognise, but which are completely legitimate - and there are plenty of those.

So why does an website like iMore make this suggestion? Well there is the basic 'no one ever got sued for being too cautious' editorial line, plus AV companies are among the most aggressive advertisers online. The buy ads, a lot of them.

AppleFan1945 wrote:

How to check Mac for viruses

Good article here:- https://www.imore.com/how-check-mac-viruses

At the end of the article it says .......

The above tips are great for occasional issues but it's generally a good idea to download and purchase a highly-rated third-party antivirus tool for ultimate security. Use it to find and remove any dangerous files then keep using the software to be protected in the future. Prevention is always better than cure and having a good antivirus tool running in the background will give you peace of mind, and potentially save you from a lot of hassle.

Absolutely bad advice. Never install third party apps that claim to protect, clean, boost performance, ext. Such apps use system resources while providing no benefit. And they may cause problems.

Please read this user tip: Effective defenses against malware and ot… - Apple Community

There's a useless web site. Two things they get wrong right off the top.

a) There are no Mac viruses. Hasn't been one since the release of OS X, 10.0

b) The very first sentence is wrong. Macs have a reputation for not getting viruses and malware.

See the problem? They've treated viruses and malware as if they're two entirely different things. They're not! The word malware is a catch-all phrase that means malicious software. You can't separate the two since a virus is malware. So is a worm or Trojan.

I don't trust any author who misuses, or simply doesn't understand this basic information.

"The macOS Background Task Manager tool is supposed to spot potentially malicious software on your machine. But a researcher says it has troubling flaws!"

https://www.wired.com/story/apple-mac-background-task-management-flaw/

Comments invited!

You can find similar information all over the place. In a nutshell:

There will never be such a thing as a bug free, exploit free OS.

Apple and Microsoft both have bug bounty programs where individuals can produce proof of vulnerabilities for cash. This is on top of the work the vendors themselves do to look for exploits. Also universities and computer science labs who do the same work. All in the name of finding issues before crooks do and report them to the OS vendor so the holes can be fixed before they're exploited.

Heck, just a year or so ago, a somewhat serious bug was found in Unix that had been there for at least 20 years.

And those contests they have to see how fast a hacker can exploit a browser flaw? The winner is typically less than a minute. But that isn't really true. They found that flaw months before and then sat on it simply so they could win the big cash award by turning in the fastest time.

An OS has millions of lines of code. You can scour it until you're blue in the face and still miss security issues. Then you add new features, or update existing ones. Both of which open up more possible flaws.

The only way a person can be truly safe from security threats is to never connect to the Internet, never have Bluetooth on, any Wi-Fi connection, or even physically connecting to someone else's device.

Kurt Lang wrote:

You can find similar information all over the place. In a nutshell:

There will never be such a thing as a bug free, exploit free OS.

Apple and Microsoft both have bug bounty programs where individuals can produce proof of vulnerabilities for cash. This is on top of the work the vendors themselves do to look for exploits. Also universities and computer science labs who do the same work. All in the name of finding issues before crooks do and report them to the OS vendor so the holes can be fixed before they're exploited.

Heck, just a year or so ago, a somewhat serious bug was found in Unix that had been there for at least 20 years.

And those contests they have to see how fast a hacker can exploit a browser flaw? The winner is typically less than a minute. But that isn't really true. They found that flaw months before and then sat on it simply so they could win the big cash award by turning in the fastest time.

An OS has millions of lines of code. You can scour it until you're blue in the face and still miss security issues. Then you add new features, or update existing ones. Both of which open up more possible flaws.

I agree! 🙂

The only way a person can be truly safe from security threats is to never connect to the Internet, never have Bluetooth on, any Wi-Fi connection, or even physically connecting to someone else's device.

Too difficult .... once one has been there! 😉

How about if one sticks to Apple's recommendations?

Only use non-Apple software it comes from the Apple App Store?

Would you go along with that?

AppleFan1945 wrote:

<snip>

Too difficult .... once one has been there! 😉

How about if one sticks to Apple's recommendations?

Only use non-Apple software it comes from the Apple App Store?

Would you go along with that?

No I would not go along with that. Apple does not certify or recommend apps in the Apple Store. Apps in the Apple Store must meet specific requirements but these requirements do not result in Apple recommendations. There are apps in the Apple Store that should never be used and there are apps not in the Apple store that are often recommended by other users here in these help communities.

That is the best recommendation. Though if you trust a third party vendor, there's no absolute necessity to get your software strictly from the App Store. And as BobTheFisherman stated, being in the App Store only means the app passed the rules necessary to be there. It's no indication they're useful, or even any good.

There are many apps that simply can't work they way they need to and still stay within the App Store rules. That's why, as one example, you'll never find the Adobe apps there.

But even the App Store has had its issues. One app that slipped by was a genealogy app. It had a trial mode (so its text said), and cost $80 after 7 days, or whatever the trial time was. But the very first thing it presented was a prompt to put your finger on the iPad's touch ID button in order to start a family search. Well, that alone is impossible. There's nothing in a fingerprint that could help anything or anyone do a genealogy search. What it really did was allow itself to use that touch as an instant confirmation that you purchased the app.

That got the app pulled from the App Store, and victims refunded. Did the developer learn anything from that? No. In just a couple of days, they put a new app up that was identical to the previous one, just with a different name. That one also ended getting pulled. Only this time, Apple banned the developer from the U.S. App Store. Did the developer learn anything from that? No! They put the same app on the European App Store, with the same M.O. That got their developer I.D. revoked and entirely banned.

And this is still a common App Store issue. I can't begin to count how many topics I've seen here where an app plainly states there's a 7, 10 or however many days trial period, but instantly charges the user for the app anyway. Not that I get many (hardly any) apps from the App Store, but I very much avoid any app that states there's a trial period. I'll only touch any like that if the reviews don't call them out for not honoring the trial before being charged.

Just to add, apps in the App Store include such apps as Norton, McAfee, etc. I would never recommend these apps. Apps not in the App Store include Etrecheck which is recommended in these communities almost daily.