opened virus 517794350.doc will my mac be protected?

If you have GateKeeper enabled, you should be ok.

Open System Preferences > Security & Privacy > Genearl

Make sure: Mac App Store and identified developers is selected.

OS X: About Gatekeeper

Install ClamXav

If there's a malware issue, ClamXav can locate it. It's free and compatible with 10.7.5

In all probability, any malware in it can only attack Windows. If you're not running Windows on the computer, just delete the zip and any files decompressed from it.

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Aleksander10 wrote:

I stupidly opened a zip file on a spam mail - supposedly from hmrc ... so what I'm asking is am I protected by any anti virus?

There have only been a couple of pieces of malware that impact OS X which were sent as e-mail attachments and they have used to target specific groups (e.g. Tibetan sympathizers). As I recall they take advantage of a vulnerability in Microsoft Office that was patched years ago, so as long as your software is fully up-to-date, you should have nothing to worry about. See Microsoft Office vulnerability used to spread malware.

Carolyn Samit wrote:

If you have GateKeeper enabled, you should be ok.

Actually, GateKeeper is only effective against executables. If the file is a document, as it appears to be, GateKeeper won't check it.

Here's an article from earlier this year that seems to describe it HMRC spam / VAT Returns Repot 517794350.doc as a Windows only Microsoft exploit that installs a form of ZBot (captures and passes on financial credentials) that was patched in 2012.