Don't attack people!
Don't respond to the Anti-Apple Thread Trolls!
PLEASE IGNORE THEM!!!
Apple Security Ping!
If you want on or off the Mac Ping List, Freepmail me.
Posted on 03/29/2011 4:00:12 PM PDT by FourtySeven
Ping!
When I first started online “everything” almost 20 years ago now, I thought that would be a reasonable thing for online banks and businesses to demand (to force their customers to have up to date antivirus on their computers). But then I reasoned, “Well, if they do that, then they open themselves up to all kinds of liability issues with customer’s COMPUTERS”.
You see that’s what I can’t “get” here: Wells-Fargo is insisting people have anti-virus on their computers as a precondition for reimbursement of unauthorized transactions?!? Well, what if that customer installs an anti-virus program that doesn’t work very well. Or worse, causes PROBLEMS in that computer? Is Wells-Fargo going to pay to have that COMPUTER fixed?! After all, they were the ones that demanded it be INSTALLED and RUN in the first place!
And beyond all that.......
HOW is someone supposed to “prove” to them they did run a virus check and it was clean? How could that possibly be done? The more I think about it right now, it seems to be a catch 22:
I call back a week later with a complaint of an unauthorized charge and this is how it could go:
“I have an unauthorized charge”
“Did you perform a virus check when we asked you to?”
“Yes”
“You need to prove you did before we will reimburse you for the money”.
And then let’s say I somehow CAN “prove” I ran it when they asked me to, but the unauthorized charge occurred before that. Then what? I’m not responsible or I am responsible?
I’m going to have to go to COURT to get this money back?! Hire computer experts to “prove” I secured my computer as much as I could? It’s CRAZY!
They can’t deny you anything unless they provided you the A/V and you didn’t run it.
You should have stuck with your lie and said you ran it.
The "security by obscurity" canard has been shot down many times before. The Mac is very secure and there ARE NO self-installing, sec-replicating, self-transmitting computer viruses for Mac OSX in the wild and crackers have been trying to write a successful one for over ten years and have yet to succeed.
You are right, there is anti-Trojan ability built into leopard and Snow Leopard and OSX will recognize the five falimies and the eighteen known Trojan horse applications that are currently in the wild and warn an unwary user before he or she downloads, installs, or attempts to run one,
Wayne, just how many OSX Macs in the wild is the magic number to make them attractive to the malware writers? Ten million? Twenty? Thirty? Forty? Fifty? There are now more than 60 million OSX MILLION OSX Macs in the wild with probably more than 95% running bare naked of any antivirus ware... Sitting ducks... and no one has been able to breech that target to make a Mac spambot. A two week window of opportunity for a 2,000 member spambot is worth $50,000 on the black market. That's about $1.2 BILLION potential to the malware writers who can compromise the sitting duck Macs out there!
If you want on or off the Mac Ping List, Freepmail me.
Thanks for pinging your list Swordmaker. I’m looking forward to more input.
Right now, I’m logging OFF and having a beer. The antivirus I got is STUCK on a file, just like all antiviri programs tend to do, which is why I got a MAC, so I wouldn’t HAVE to get one, consuming resources like a vampire and DRIVING up my CPU temp uselessly. I’ll check back for more input and with an update to the situation.
TChad posted an article that seems to indicate just visiting a malicious website can install a keylogger on a Mac. I’d like your and other’s input on that if you are so inclined. I mean if that’s true, how can anyone feel secure on any machine, that is, without some advanced computer degree?
OR, if that’s been the subject of debate ad nauseum on other threads, please, don’t worry. I have no desire to start flame wars. I’d really just like to get to the bottom of things here, and regain a sense of security.
For the record, I also installed the patch from Apple on Sunday. So that, the update for Adobe Reader, and the update for Office for Mac have been the only programs I’ve installed in literally months.
I only logged onto Wells-Fargo 2 weeks ago from my iPhone on the 3G network. And lastly, I don’t use the username/password combo for Wells-Fargo on ANY other site.
So anyway, thanks again everyone for your input now, and any you would like to submit in the future. Keep me in your prayers please if you are so inclined.
God bless. No matter how this turns out, it’s good to know how great FReepers are.
< sigh >
Just let’s you know how stoopid their IT staff are.
Keep checking. I am glad you notified the bank; but you may want to go in and speak to them personally.
Worst case scenario (which I have hit a couple of times) is to reformat the hard drive and re-install the operating system, and the programs you like to have on your ‘puter.
A real PITA to do.
You called that 800 number? Which 800 number? Did the person on the phone give you that number or did you look through your records and get that number. Never call back a number that is given to you over the phone.
I bet this has already been covered since I am way behind on this thread, but just reiterating if already stated!
Exactamundo. I'd wager good money that the person who called was NOT from Wells Fargo bank. They would have called armed with a whole lot of information rather than a bunch of bull crap like "we can't tell when this activity occurred".
LOL thanks, I needed that anyway.
You're wrong. There are ZERO Mac OSX viruses in the wild, exDemMom. Zero. There have been about seven proof-of-concept attempts at OSX viruses that made tempest in a teapot headlines in the past ten years but they were never seen outside of a security company lab, and NONE of them ever worked. The problem for the malware writers is the sheer lack of a viable vector to get their malicious content onto the targeted Macs other than social engineering... Which brings us to Trojans. There are eighteen known Trojan horse programs in five families for OSX, and OSX has a core level system built in that warns users if they attempt to download, install or run any one of those or any relatives from those families on their computers!
A Mac user can only get a Trojan if he takes an active step to download, install, and run the malicious application, giving an administrator name and password for each step, ignoring the system's explicit warning that he is downloading, installing, and running an identified malicious program. It takes INDUSTRIAL STRENGTH STUPID to do that!
That was using a vulnerability that Apple closed in the update that was released PRIOR to the pwn2own contest. In addition, The referees of the contest CHANGED the rules of the contest this year to allow the use of the PREVIOUS release of the OS and browser so they could have a winner! Those in the know gave the CanSecWest contest NO CREDIBILITY THIS YEAR because of those last minute rule changes! In all previous years the rules required the current OS and browser.
In addition, that was a RETAIL exploit requiring the active participation of the cracker and the user. . . and it was never released into the wild. The author of the exploit stated the vulnerability would work on any OS and any browser.
Have you gotten in touch with Apple? I don’t care how slight my problem is; I call them and they can pull me out of it.
A Mac user can only get a Trojan if he takes an active step to download, install, and run the malicious application, giving an administrator name and password for each step, ignoring the system's explicit warning that he is downloading, installing, and running an identified malicious program. It takes INDUSTRIAL STRENGTH STUPID to do that!
I do not wish to get into a spat over which is a "better" system. I realize that Mac users tend to be almost fanatically loyal to Mac. I've used both; I prefer the user-friendliness of PC and so have stuck with it.
That said, I cannot imagine ANY platform that wouldn't have susceptibilities in it. I think one cannot exist. While the vulnerabilities wouldn't be the same as for PC, they most certainly are there. According to this article, the reason Macs aren't infected with as many viruses is pretty much what I already said: O’Donnell says, “There is no economic benefit to investing the time in compromising a Mac when you can compromise 10 to 20 times more systems for the same level of effort by going after PCs.” Furthermore, Java is a weak point that is used on all systems.
Bingo!
Lots of fishing calls out there. Always call your financial people yourself.
Most of the biggest problems people run into for malware come from the smallest things. There’s an emoticon “tool” out there for your web browser that ostensibly is to put little emoticons in your emails and stuff which is loaded with tons malware. The only good news about that one is that it’s so loaded with malware your computer becomes inoperable after you add it so they never get any info. Any of those “do you want to add this” boxes that pop up on the web could be a trojan, they prey on the click yes happy people.
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