is apple security center safe?

Except, with NoScript you have to be careful which sites you allow. Once you allow a site, you've enabled JavaScript for that site and you're just as vulnerable as running without NoScript, at least for this thing.

True; but unless some functionality is missing that one actually requires, there's no incentive to allow scripts from any source.

That's how I use it, but there are times when you just have to take a chance.

babowa wrote:

And although it's been on several different sites, the major ones "infiltrated" appear to be Hotmail, Google Images, and now Yahoo.

It's good to be prepared when online in general, but especially those websites.

It isn't exactly "on" those sites but it might as well be. You can search Apple Support Communities with the phrase "SEO poisoning" to find several posts that explain how it works, but the bottom line is any web page that might show the results of a popular search term (even if you didn't do the search yourself) might include links to the bogus pages containing the Javascript that try to download the malware.

That includes links in advertisements,"related topics" lists, & so on -- anything that might use one of the major search providers like Google or Yahoo to add content to the page.

I understand that; in my case, I moved the cursor from this site (somewhere on one of these threads) across/up to the left to my Yahoo Inbox tab (logged in), so I really don't think I hit any ads on the way. I had logged in earlier and have always left my Inbox open/available in a tab; next tab is another web based email account, third tab is ASC.

By "Yahoo" do you mean Yahoo! Mail or anything else that runs ads from Yahoo?

Message was edited by: R C-R

Yes; my workflow is: launch Firefox (completely empty page = home page); first tab: sign in at Yahoo Mail/go to Inbox and leave that open for future checks; next tab: another web based email account (that is where I get all my Apple email notifications; third tab: sign in to ASC and then leave whatever page I'm on open.

Aside from doing other things (and usually having a few other tabs open temporarily), I will come back to those three tabs several times throughout the day, checking for new content here and new emails at Yahoo or my other account.

The only time I encounter ads on these three is at Yahoo, but that Inbox wasn't open at that point - I was on ASC and hitting the tab for the Yahoo Inbox. And, it was too early in the day for me to have gone to any other sites yet.

FWIW, Yahoo does not seem to be very good about keeping its ads free of exploits, according to this article from a year ago or so. It is mostly about stuff targeting windows, but the same sort of Javascript based techniques might be at work for this Mac trojan.

At least on Macs, you still have to install it….

This Apple Security Center popup appeared on my screen today. I'd read about these things, and realized it was a scam of some sort. But it dropped about seven ZIP files in downloads without my having done anything. I immediately dragged them to Trash and then emptied the trash, without opening or executing anything. Am I okay?

If you did not install anything, you should be OK. Please see the notice at the top of Mac OS X v10.6 Snow Leopard (among others) for removal info if you did.

Should be. You can check the file locations mentioned here; http://www.reedcorner.net/news.php/?p=138

but if no installer ran there shouldn't be anything to find.

This is my first Apple computer and I love it. The MS Windows world always had problems with viruses, malware etc.

However, I think it is becoming very evident that these hackers/scammers are going after Mac's too. I'm glad that these forums here exist. When I bought my MacBook Pro in Dec. 2010, the Apple sales guys said over and over that no AV/malware software was needed. I spoke to a more "technical" Apple guy at my local Apple store, just recently, and he said the same thing.

Don't know if anyone from Apple corporate reads these forums? But if they do, it might be a good suggestion to not have your sales people "push" so strongly on new Mac buyers that they are invincible to the threats on the internet. Toning down that message, a bit, might be a good thing to do.

So, I asked this in a reply on another thread. What is the consensus on a recommendation for a proper AV software? I've heard about VirusBarrier X6, Norton IS etc. Anything with added firewall protection is desired too. Will sacrifice a little in performance for the sake of safety...

Thanks and look forward to your replies!

So, I asked this in a reply on another thread. What is the consensus on a recommendation for a proper AV software? I've heard about VirusBarrier X6, Norton IS etc. Anything with added firewall protection is desired too. Will sacrifice a little in performance for the sake of safety...

As far as I know, the only problem at the moment is the current threat of trojans; that is not a virus, so no AV software will protect you. The only thing that will is you: a trojan needs to be installed by you with your password. It may download without your knowledge, but unless you install it, no harm done - just delete it and empty the trash. I stopped mine before it downloaded. So, if nothing is installed, then how will AV software help?

You might want to spend some time reading this:

http://www.reedcorner.net/guides/macvirus/

Hello babowa,

Thanks for the reply and link to the article. Please forgive my ignorance, I'm a new Mac user and overall not very tech with computers. Glad these forums exist for inexperienced people like me! 😊

DMerz wrote:

Don't know if anyone from Apple corporate reads these forums?

As a rule, only the moderators read the forums, & most of that is to check for violations of the Apple Support Communities Terms of Use, often for posts users report as potential "abuse" (which could mean problems other than actual abuse). The volume of posts is much too high for anyone to see them all. If you want to make suggestions to Apple, the official way is through the links at http://www.apple.com/feedback/.

What is the consensus on a recommendation for a proper AV software?

There is no consensus! You will get opinions that vary from "it is all useless and/or just as bad as malware" to specific recommendations for one or another product from some users that love it that other users warn will do bad things.

That applies no less to my personal recommendation, which is Sophos Home Edition for Macs. I like it because it is totally free, based on industrial grade commercial products, well maintained, & has detected every variant of this malware I can find well before ClamXav has.

ClamXav is probably the most commonly recommended A-V product for Macs. It is an open source effort & is also free. If you are looking for consensus among those that recommend such things for OS X, this is as close as you will get.

The one thing that almost everybody (myself included) seems to agree on is to stay away from Norton A-V products.