The 'New' Mac Virus...please explain

Good Afternoon all,
I too have read the google news. So here are my concerns/questions:
1-What is an ARDAgent and how/why would I 'run such an executable'?
2-How can someone have such unabandoned access to my system if I have minimal sharing turned on?
I have more but I guess those two questions are a good start.

Tom IV wrote:
As far as the google story, it starts out as "Two Mac viruses were discovered over the weekend..."
Can you point me to this story and what weekend was this? It sounds like old news and the exploit involves you willfully giving administrative permission to some website to download a program. Not likely you would fall for it.
As far as security, while there are no known viruses that attack Mac OS X at the present time, it is possible for spyware to get onto your Mac.
So I go to lenghts to protect my user. A hosed system can be replaced but a compromised user folder is compromised forever. Along with all your important data like bank records, credit cards, ... I.e. your "identity" stolen.
The best way to avoid that is by using your built-in firewall which is industrial strength and/or a hard wired router, downloading only from "trusted" sites, installing all security updates and being careful about what you give administrative power to. It is also recommended to run day to day tasks from a non-admin account.
Don't use Limewire or any other P2P service to download your software, get it from reputable sources. In addition, always keep at least your users backed up, preferably a clone of your entire system on a separate disk. And put your sensitive passwords, bank accounts, credit card numbers in a "secure note" in a new keychain or in an encrypted folder.
If and when a Mac virus does appear it will be headline news and you can download the AV software then. If you feel you have to run an AV program I'd suggest ClamXav a mac friendly freeware app that is very stable with Tiger. It will check for known virus signatures at any rate.
Hope this helps.
-mj

Similar Messages

  • What is everyone doing about the new Mac virus?

    Just read about the new Trojan virus that is aimed at Macs. Is there a solution for this?

    There's an update from Apple that's been pushed out.  On mine, System Update pushed this when I opened Safari.  If not same for you, try running Software Update.

  • Just bought a Mac but music on my MacBook Pro, iPhone and iPad which all sync together is not coming up on the new Mac - help please

    ust bought a Mac but music on my MacBook Pro, iPhone and iPad which all sync together is not coming up on the new Mac.  I think I have turned on iCloud but still nothing.

    It does not magically appear, unless iTunesMatch is turned on.
    Copy the media (the ENTIRE iTunes folder) from the old computer to the new computer

  • I bought games and music on my ipod touch and then bought a new mac, but i updated my ipod on the new mac and lost all of my games and music and they arent on my computer or my ipod touch:( The apps i bought are not on my old computer either!! please help

    bought games and music on my ipod touch and then bought a new mac, but i updated my ipod on the new mac and lost all of my games and music and they arent on my computer or my ipod touch:( The apps i bought are not on my old computer either!! please help!!! I don't want to buy them all again!!

    - You can redownload yur apps at no additional cost.  See:
    How to redownload purchased apps from the App Store
    - You only get one download of music and it is up to you to make a backup.  However, sometimes if you explain what happens the iTunes store may allow a redownload of music.  You can contact them by starting here and selecting the appropriate topic:
    Apple - Support - iTunes

  • I have the new mac retina 10.9 and Facebook isn't launching.. please suggest help

    i have the new mac retina 10.9 and Facebook isn't launching.. please suggest help

    yes from google chrome it doesnt open at all for any page ! whenever i want to search on google chrome it says : aw snap couldnt load page. From safari all pages would load however facebook is very slow and images arent diplying.

  • Performance with the new Mac Pros?

    I sold my old Mac Pro (first generation) a few months ago in anticipation of the new line-up. In the meantime, I purchased a i7 iMac and 12GB of RAM. This machine is faster than my old Mac for most Aperture operations (except disk-intensive stuff that I only do occasionally).
    I am ready to purchase a "real" Mac, but I'm hesitating because the improvements just don't seem that great. I have two questions:
    1. Has anyone evaluated qualitative performance with the new ATI 5870 or 5770? Long ago, Aperture seemed pretty much GPU-constrained. I'm confused about whether that's the case anymore.
    2. Has anyone evaluated any of the new Mac Pro chips for general day-to-day use? I'm interested in processing through my images as quickly as possible, so the actual latency to demosaic and render from the raw originals (Canon 1-series) is the most important metric. The second thing is having reasonable performance for multiple brushed-in effect bricks.
    I'm mostly curious if anyone has any experience to point to whether it's worth it -- disregarding the other advantages like expandability and nicer (matte) displays.
    Thanks.
    Ben

    Thanks for writing. Please don't mind if I pick apart your statements.
    "For an extra $200 the 5870 is a no brainer." I agree on a pure cost basis that it's not a hard decision. But I have a very quiet environment, and I understand this card can make a lot of noise. To pay money, end up with a louder machine, and on top of that realize no significant benefit would be a minor disaster.
    So, the more interesting question is: has anyone actually used the 5870 and can compare it to previous cards? A 16-bit 60 megapixel image won't require even .5GB of VRAM if fully tiled into it, for example, so I have no ability, a priori, to prove to myself that it will matter. I guess I'm really hoping for real-world data. Perhaps you speak from this experience, Matthew? (I can't tell.)
    Background work and exporting are helpful, but not as critical for my primary daily use. I know the CPU is also used for demosaicing or at least some subset of the render pipeline, because I have two computers that demonstrate vastly different render-from-raw response times with the same graphics card. Indeed, it is this lag that would be the most valuable of all for me to reduce. I want to be able to flip through a large shoot and see each image at 100% as instantaneously as possible. On my 2.8 i7 that process takes about 1 second on average (when Aperture doesn't get confused and mysteriously stop rendering 100% images).
    Ben

  • I would like to know how to extract my old contacts from the iTunes backup? Please explain in basic english i am a beginner

    I have had my old Iphone 5s replaced with a new one but I would like to know how to extract my old contacts from the iTunes backup? Please explain in basic english i am a beginner

    Hey,
    I think you will find that you have to have a debit/credit card stored on yur account regardless of whether your have iTunes Credit or want to purchase a free App. I don't know why, I assume its for ID verification or is part of the terms and conditions. I occasionally have to re-verify my credit card info even when just trying to run Update on one of my Apps or like I said downloading a free App.
    If you need further clarification all you can do is contact iTunes Support:
                   https://expresslane.apple.com/ServiceOptionAction.action
    Hope this helps. Andrew

  • Can the new Mac Mini boot Snow Leopard from an external hard drive?

    I currently boot my 2009 Mac Mini from a FW800 external drive with 10.6.8. If I just plug my external drive into a new 2011 Mac Mini, will it boot into Snow Leopard if I set it as the startup disk or will I get a kernel panic?

    I bought a 2011 Mac Mini, which came with Lion installed. I thought maybe I could repartition it and have a Snow Leopard partition. So I repartitioned it (500gb split into two 250gb partitions). I named the new partition "SnowLeopard" just to make it easy for me to tell the difference.
    I attached the external DVD and put in a Snow Leopard installer disc, holding down the C key so it would boot and install from that, but it just spun for awhile. Doesn't appear to work.
    Then I read somewhere else that someone had managed to clone a copy of Snow Leopard onto an external drive and boot from that. In their situation they were talking about a MacBook, but the principle seemed sane.
    So I rebooted, holding down the T key to put the Mac Mini into Target hard disk mode, and attached it via Firewire to another MacMini (circa 2008 or so, not sure of year, but it was upgraded last year to Snow Leopard and has been upgraded along and along). Then I used Carbon Copy Cloner to copy Snow Leopard (that is, the entire hard disk-- System and all applications and data) to my newer Mac Mini's "snow leopard" partition.
    For yucks, when it was done cloning, I restarted the older Mac Mini, and had it boot from the newer Mac Mini's snow leopard partition--- it worked! To make it easy to tell the difference, I changed the desktop background to something completely different. I think I tried booting from Lion but I can't remember if that worked.
    Then I rebooted the newer Mac Mini, which booted up in Lion, of course. Going into System Settings, I changed the startup disk to the "snow leopard" partition, and rebooted, and it booted up in Snow Leopard.
    I have yet to test the applications on the Snow Leopard partition. Another problem has arisen.
    Because with both of the Mac MInis being active on the network, they both had the same computer and user name. So I renamed the newer Mac Mini to something completely different, and changed the password.
    Unfortunately, now I cannot change any other setting in the System Settings that requires a password. While the newer Snow Leopard lets me log in with the new user and new password, whenever I try to click the "lock" icon to change something, I'm prompted for a username and password. Apparently this is some different username and password than either the new or old username/password.
    I've tried various combinations of both: new user/old password, old user/new password, old user/old password, etc.
    So if you do what I've done, be careful about changing the username and password on your cloned computer. I think it may be wiser to create a new user and then delete the old cloned users. I may just have to re-clone the old Mac Mini to the new one again.
    If anyone has any ideas about this password conundrum, please pass along!

  • Premiere Pro CC and the New Mac Pro (2014)

    I'm expecting delivery soon of a new Mac Pro, nicely loaded, which I purchased mainly because of all the work I do with video. Yet, I read in a review that Adobe Premiere Pro isn't optimized to take advantage of the new Mac Pro, won't run faster, and I'm better off using Apple's Final Cut.
    1. Is this true?; and
    2. If so, will Premiere Pro be updated any time soon to run best on a 2014 Mac Pro?
    My new Mac Pro will have the following configuration:
    3.5GHz 6-core with 12MB of L3 cache
    32GB (4x8GB) of 1866MHz DDR3 ECC
    1TB PCIe-based flash storage
    Dual AMD FirePro D700 GPUs with 6GB of GDDR5 VRAM each

    My main problem is that when i export using gpu open gl it crashes hard boot the mac pro. A 3 min timeline with 4k footage n a bunch of color grading.  I get lucky if the timeline is shorter. But i think it is a gpu issue n my mac must be fixed. Currently under apple tech support. N my case is unique. No one has had the same issue and that makes it harder for me to figure the isse and to apple figure the issue.
    If i export using software only mercury then the export goes smoothe no mattrr how long. But that defeata the point of owning a mac pro with 2 GPUs
    Enviado desde mi iPhone
    El 29/03/2014, a las 01:51 p.m., BanksMeador <[email protected]> escribió:
    Re: Premiere Pro CC and the New Mac Pro (2014)
    created by BanksMeador in Premiere Pro - View the full discussion
    I have had my 12 core 2014 Mac Pro for a couple of weeks now, and I'm not very impressed with Premiere CC performance with 4K R3D on a 1920 x 1080 timeline.
    I understand that there may be an update soon that will take adantage of the CPU's and GPU's when it comes to the complex task of de-bayering the R3D footage, but it's just not there now.
    I get similar playback performance to what I experienced on my 09 Mac Pro tower.
    Any insights on getting better playback performance in this scenario would be greatly appreciated.
    Thanks!
    Please note that the Adobe Forums do not accept email attachments. If you want to embed a screen image in your message please visit the thread in the forum to embed the image at http://forums.adobe.com/message/6253414#6253414
    Replies to this message go to everyone subscribed to this thread, not directly to the person who posted the message. To post a reply, either reply to this email or visit the message page: http://forums.adobe.com/message/6253414#6253414
    To unsubscribe from this thread, please visit the message page at http://forums.adobe.com/message/6253414#6253414. In the Actions box on the right, click the Stop Email Notifications link.
    Start a new discussion in Premiere Pro at Adobe Community
    For more information about maintaining your forum email notifications please go to http://forums.adobe.com/thread/416458?tstart=0.

  • QX 10 – optimised for the new Mac Pro?

    I recently upgraded to a new Mac Pro.
    So am now considering going back to QX (I am a pro graphic designer).
    They have a deal offering special pricing for upgrades from version 3 (AUD $399)!
    Question: Is QX 10 optimized for the new Mac Pro?
    Any designers (having previously used / using InDesign) out there with QX 10 experience?
    Your thoughts please?

    QX 10 is QuarkXpress  (version 10 - latest version) – a pro publishing/page layout application. Adobe InDesign knocked QX off its throne over a decade ago. Now that Adobe have introduced their subscription model (as opposed to their former purchase upfront model), many pros like me are now looking for alternatives. QX is about the most likely. I'm just doing some homework before I jump (after all it's my livelihood we're talking about here).

  • Is antivirus necessary on the new Mac Air, need reassurance.

    Is an antivirus necessary on the new Mac Air, I need to be sure!

    mastertaster wrote:
    Is an antivirus necessary on the new Mac Air, I need to be sure!
    If you are using OS X as indicated in your profile, you already have it.
    OS X already includes everything it needs to protect itself from viruses and malware. Keep it updated with software updates from Apple.
    A much better question to ask is "how should I protect my Mac":
    Never install any product that claims to "speed up", "clean up", "optimize", or "accelerate" your Mac. Without exception, they will do the opposite.
    Never install pirated or "cracked" software, software obtained from dubious websites, or other questionable sources. Illegally obtained software is almost certain to contain malware.
    Don’t supply your password in response to a popup window requesting it, unless you know what it is and the reason your credentials are required.
    Don’t open email attachments from email addresses that you do not recognize, or click links contained in an email:
    Most of these are scams that direct you to fraudulent sites that attempt to convince you to disclose personal information.
    Such "phishing" attempts are the 21st century equivalent of a social exploit that has existed since the dawn of civilization. Don’t fall for it.
    Apple will never ask you to reveal personal information in an email. If you receive an unexpected email from Apple saying your account will be closed unless you take immediate action, just ignore it. If your iTunes or App Store account becomes disabled for valid reasons, you will know when you try to buy something or log in to this support site, and are unable to.
    Don’t install browser extensions unless you understand their purpose. Go to the Safari menu > Preferences > Extensions. If you see any extensions that you do not recognize or understand, simply click the Uninstall button and they will be gone.
    Don’t install Java unless you are certain that you need it:
    Java, a non-Apple product, is a potential vector for malware. If you are required to use Java, be mindful of that possibility.
    Disable Java in Safari > Preferences > Security.
    Despite its name JavaScript is unrelated to Java. No malware can infect your Mac through JavaScript. It’s OK to leave it enabled.
    Block browser popups: Safari menu > Preferences > Security > and check "Block popup windows":
    Popup windows are useful and required for some websites, but popups have devolved to become a common means to deliver targeted advertising that you probably do not want.
    Popups themselves cannot infect your Mac, but many contain resource-hungry code that will slow down Internet browsing.
    If you ever see a popup indicating it detected registry errors, that your Mac is infected with some ick, or that you won some prize, it is 100% fraudulent. Ignore it.
    Ignore hyperventilating popular media outlets that thrive by promoting fear and discord with entertainment products arrogantly presented as "news". Learn what real threats actually exist and how to arm yourself against them:
    The most serious threat to your data security is phishing. To date, most of these attempts have been pathetic and are easily recognized, but that is likely to change in the future as criminals become more clever.
    OS X viruses do not exist, but intentionally malicious or poorly written code, created by either nefarious or inept individuals, is nothing new.
    Never install something without first knowing what it is, what it does, how it works, and how to get rid of it when you don’t want it any more.
    If you elect to use "anti-virus" software, familiarize yourself with its limitations and potential to cause adverse effects, and apply the principle immediately preceding this one.
    Most such utilities will only slow down and destabilize your Mac while they look for viruses that do not exist, conveying no benefit whatsoever - other than to make you "feel good" about security, when you should actually be exercising sound judgment, derived from accurate knowledge, based on verifiable facts.
    Do install updates from Apple as they become available. No one knows more about Macs and how to protect them than the company that builds them.
    Summary: Use common sense and caution when you use your Mac, just like you would in any social context. There is no product, utility, or magic talisman that can protect you from all the evils of mankind.

  • Is Creative Suite CS 5.5 compatible with the new Mac OS maverick

    Can anyone out there please tell me if Creative Suite CS 5.5 is compatible with the new Mac OS Maverick.
    It seems that Adobe are willing to sell products but they make it damn near impossible to ask a simple question.

    Hi ARTSAUCE,
    Please refer : http://helpx.adobe.com/x-productkb/global/mac-os-mavericks-compatability.html

  • I have problem when transferring book (PDF/Epub) from Computer to iPad with the new iTune? Please Help....

    I have problem when transferring book (PDF/Epub) from Computer to iPad with the new iTune? Please Help....

    With iTunes 11 you can enable the left-hand sidebar via control-S on a PC, option-command-S on a Mac. If you are trying to get it to the iBooks app then with the sidebar enabled the process should be similar to how it was on previous versions of iTunes e.g. add it to your iTunes library via File > Add To Library, connect the iPad and select it on the left-hand sidebar, and then use the Books tab on the right-hand side to select and sync it to the iBooks app.

  • How good is the new mac-book pro at running PC games, will it run...

    I currently have a mac mini which i have boot-camped for playing PC games.
    Many of the new games exceed the graphics spec of my mac.
    I am considering buying one of the new mac-book pro's.
    Could someone please tell me if the new macbook pro runs the following PC games through boot-camp .
    1) Call of duty 4
    2) Battlefield 2
    3) Rainbow 6 vegas (1 and 2)
    I know it is possible to get some of the above games for OSX but i want them on PC so i can play them over my local area network with other PCs.
    Thanks
    P.S: the new mack book has: NVIDIA GeForce 9400M + 9600M GT with 512/256 MB
    see http://store.apple.com/us/browse/home/shopmac/family/macbookpro?mco=MTE4NDY

    ziggy067,
    Both the Macbook Pro and your Mini will run Windows games, under Windows, just like any other similarly-configured PC.
    In other words, the new Macbook Pro, and indeed any of the Macbook Pros, will run the games you list just fine.
    Scott

  • Singing the praises of the new Mac Mini Server

    I've been running Maya (a 3D modeling and animation application) on a mid-2010 17" MacBook Pro: dual core 2.66GHz i7 processor, 8GB of RAM.  It's done quite well, even when rendering frames of animation, but I knew I needed to speed things up a bit when I'm rendering out longer animation clips at reasonably high resolution.  When the new Mac Mini refresh kicked in I decided to take the plunge and pick up the new Mini Server as an extra render node.
    Wow, was that a great decision.
    With the same 8GB of RAM, but adding quad core i7 plus Sandy Bridge, it screams.  I just ran a disributed render test: 10 seconds of animation at 24 frames per second, 1080p HD.  The Mini Server easily rendered three frames for every one the MBP churned out.  That means my overal render time has been cut to roughly 25% of what it was before.
    If ever you wondered what that extra horsepower means in actual useage terms, now you know.

    Any time. I have some real numbers:
    240 frames, 1080p resolution.
    MacBook Pro alone: 4 hours, 17 minutes.
    With Mac Mini Server added (distributed render): 1 hour, 3 minutes.
    Yeah, I'm pleased.

Maybe you are looking for

  • How to clear the values from a Tab Screen.

    Hi, I have created Two Tab in my report by using the below mentioned code. SELECTION-SCREEN BEGIN OF SCREEN 200 AS SUBSCREEN. SELECTION-SCREEN BEGIN OF BLOCK BR_ACB WITH FRAME TITLE TEXT-502. PARAMETERS: P_VATNUM   TYPE T001-STCEG,              P_NAM

  • Customer-Bapi

    Hello Gurus, Whats the BAPI we can use to update the customer master tax Classification field. Regards

  • Change unread message color in Mail

    I'm trying to mimic a particularly useful feature in Entourage, the show messages using these colors for read and unread messages. In Entourage you can simply set a preference to show unread messages as one color and read messages as another. Mail do

  • Keyboard accessibility, Captivate 8 - I cannot select multiple choice options with tab / enter.

    It seems that most information I can find is that it's a standard feature, and if you have the accessibility checkbox selected then it should work.  I'm viewing my quiz in HTML5 Chrome.  Tabs do not enter the answers, am I missing something obvious?

  • What does "Missing reverse index on remove: value=null" mean

    I am getting this error in my Coherence Debug Logs, what does this error mean ? Thanks 14:46:24,923 WARN Coherence:3 - 2009-05-06 14:46:24.923 Oracle Coherence GE 3.4/405p1 <Warning> (thread=dist-customer-serviceWorker:1, member=25): Missing reverse