#Techreivew mac os x vm software#

As this very good article points out, the Mac malware threat is so trivial that a Mac user is more likely to encounter problems caused by anti-malware software than from malware itself.В Nevertheless, itвЂ™s good to have a system in place in case a significant threat does raise its head in the future. ItвЂ™s like handing out helmets to people watching the Pleiades shower to protect them from the odd chance of getting hit by a meteorite.ДЄpple hasnвЂ™t even bothered to advertise the malware feature, because the malware threat is so trivial that theyвЂ™d lose more business talking about malware protection - and leading some people to think Macs have a problem with it - than theyвЂ™d gain by bragging about how they can prevent infection.

#Techreivew mac os x vm for mac#

So, by including just two paltry malware definitions in Snow Leopard, Apple has protected 10.6 users from 90%+ of the already extremely minor risk posed by malware for Mac users. Of the six Mac trojans, the vast majority of infections are the result of OSX.RSPlug and OSX.Iservice. If a trojan gets on your computer, it can only spread by sending messages to another human that somehow tricks that human into installing the trojan.

Trojans cannot propagate quickly because a human has to go through the process of installing them on every computer they infect.В If a virus or worm gets control of your internet-connected computer, it will automatically attack hundreds or even thousands of other computers within a few hours. Most often they masquerade as pornography or вЂњcrackedвЂќ - i.e., stolen - software. Trojans, named by analogy to the TrojansвЂ™ bringing the GreeksвЂ™ wooden horse inside the city walls, require that that a human being load the software onto the computer.В Getting infected by a trojan usually requires personal carelessness on the order of taking candy from strangers.В Trojans pretend to be a copy of a useful or desirable piece of software, which the user then installs on the system. Both viruses and worms can spread exponentially because they reproduce themselves as fast as the infected computer can communicate with other computers, and in doing so they require no human action. Worms are self-contained programs that copy themselves from computer to computer. Viruses work much like biological viruses, i.e., they hijack a program running on a computer and direct that program to propagate the virus. Malware is usually divided into three subtypes depending on how the malware spreads. Of the remaining 9, four will not run on Mac OS 10.5 or 10.6 and/or have been patched out on earlier system versions.ДЄll of the remaining six pieces of malware are trojans.

They donвЂ™t actually exist outside the lab. Of those, four are proof-of-concept programs written by security experts to study exploits. Symantec lists a whacking total of 13 known pieces of Mac OS X targeted malware out 9000+ listed. That is the lowest level of infection Symantec can set and as a practical matter translates into zero infected machines.

#Techreivew mac os x vm Pc#

Scanning for only two pieces of malware seems paltry by PC standards but looking up OSX.RSPlug and OSX.Iservice on SymantecвЂ™s threat list reveals that both are classified as having a known level of infected computers of 0-49 and known infected sites of 0-2. The article describes the two pieces of malware that Snow Leopard starts out scanning for:В OSX.RSPlug and OSX.Iservice.

Secondly, there are really only two pieces of activeВ Mac OS XВ malware. More malware definitions can be added in the future.

#Techreivew mac os x vm update#

Why would Apple bother to create a system that only scans for two pieces of malware? Well, firstly, the system is designed to automatically update using Mac OS XвЂ™s software update feature. WELL, MAYBE IвЂ™LL WAIT A BIT: I mentioned Snow LeopardвЂ™s malware protection earlier, but this says it only scans for two trojans.