The Mac Virus - there's a Mac virus?

Computer viruses have been a sad reality for many years. The first computer virus was more an accident than anything else, but it was a gateway to the largest efforts all done in the name of the computers of destabilization. The Macintosh computer was one of the first machines to have a graphical interface and support for proprietary software. Although these viruses are not as frequent nor as harmful as PC viruses, as more people switch to Mac, your operating system has become a target for viruses as well.

A virus for Mac?

Let's take a look at some of the different Mac viruses out there.

In 1994, the virus INIT-29-B was born. It was a virus that could alter the applications and system files. It would make the programs crash randomly, although no specific control over programs that affect them. Although he just could certainly be very annoying.

July 1995 saw a virus that infects HyperCard stacks. Although it would not affect the system files, be extended to other HyperCard stacks in the system making virtually unusable. This could cause the computer to freeze and the words "pickle". No real damage, but a little irritating.

November 2006 saw the introduction of OSX.Macarena. This was not a virus that caused any damage, but did infect files on your computer. Power-PC had nothing to fear, because they do not affect them. It is clear that most Mac viruses were intended for fun rather than harm.

To further demonstrate the futility of most Macintosh viruses, another harmless was conceived and designed in 1998. It was called the Hong Kong virus and everything was going to do was simply overwrite files with random characters on Power PC systems. If you found infected with this virus, all I had to do was disable the autorun QuickTime. This was largely not convenient because you can manually select CD-ROM device.

Within pirated copies of iWork 09 and Adobe Photoshop for Mac OS, a virus was embedded, can steal the password of the owner and the launching of denial of service attacks. This virus was called the OSX.Iservice or iBotNet.

Initially, Mac viruses are fairly harmless, but later versions have become a bit more damaging. Over time, as the threat grows, it is possible that during the old days, when we saw the harmless "pickle". Viruses are not unique to PCs. We Mac users will need to take precautions to protect against the virus threat increasing.

The Mac OS is much more difficult to exploit, but not immune. And unfortunately, the Mac virus is a reality. You can minimize risk by using a virus protector designed for Macs As they move the virus software is constantly working to provide better protection.