Apple recommends anti-virus software for the Mac
Submitted by Bryan on December 2, 2008 - 7:15am
Ironic how the world can change so quickly. Yesterday, the CIO of my organization began enforcing the use of anti-virus software on all of our Linux clients and servers. Today, I read that Apple is telling its Mac users to purchase anti-virus software. Something nasty is brewing out there.
Apple encourages the widespread use of multiple antivirus utilities so that virus programmers have more than one application to circumvent, thus making the whole virus writing process more difficult.
Initial reports by Brian Krebbs, Security Fix and The Register.
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Odd how Apple left out
Odd how Apple left out ClamXav as an option on their support page.
ClamXav
Yes, it's very strange. Luckily, ClamXav does remain available through Apple's Downloads: http://www.apple.com/downloads/macosx/ne...
ClamXav would be the perfect choice for someone who isn't quite convinced it's worth spending the money for anti-virus software on the Mac...but wants to play it safe anyway.
Looks like Apple removed the
Looks like Apple removed the page now as it was stale and out of date.
http://www.macworld.com/article/137267/2...
I wonder how much of Apple's
I wonder how much of Apple's marketing and PR was involved with the decision. The KB page wasn't so stale last month when it was reviewed by Apple's people.
What does this have to do with Drupal
What does this have to do with Drupal? Why is this on Drupal Planet?
Valid Question
What does this have to do with Drupal? That is a valid question which allows me an opportunity to get on my IT security soapbox for the answer.
Yes, the topic of anti-virus software and security may not be directly related to Drupal. However, given that there is a higher proportion of Linux and Mac users in the Drupal community than at large, I believe the Drupal community has an interest in such topics. Very similar to how discussions of PHP, Apache, server administration, and CSS may not be directly Drupal related, they do have a place on Drupal Planet.
A year ago, I came across a very nasty malicious PHP script (a webshell) that was placed on a Linux web server via a Remote File Inclusion exploit. This webshell could do some amazing damage to not only the website but the entire server. The irony is that the webshell was not detected until I began a download of the files from the Linux server to my Windows client. The anti-virus software on my Windows machine detected the malicious PHP script! This started to get me thinking about what if I had downloaded the files on a Linux or Mac client with no anti-virus software? I'm embarrassed to say, I likely would have transferred the infected script to additional servers and clients.
The lesson I learned was that no matter how good of a server administrator (and I'm a pretty good one), it's humanly impossible to look at every file on the server. While OS X and Linux may be secure operating systems, hackers are finding plenty of attack vectors via applications on these systems. My point is that if you're a Drupal developer with a Drupal business it's increasingly becoming a liability to not better screen the files you are transferring to and from your client. This is the discussion I wanted to start via may post and Planet Drupal.