Hi.  I was recently browsing in a Google Group with my mac when the
website would not allow me to continue on to the next page.  Instead,
a message appeared stating that it would not let me proceed because it
detected a virus or spyware.  Had I received an e-mail stating this I
would have disregarded it, attributing it to some infected PC with my
address in its addressbook.  However, since it came from Google, I
became immediately concerned.

I hadn't downloaded anything in over a month and hadn't noticed any
sluggish response from my computer lately.  I checked the Apple
discussion boards and the consensus seems to be that there are
virtually no viruses for macs and generally no, or very little,
spyware with the exception of something called Opener.

How concerned should I be?  I am looking into anti-spyware software to
be on the safe side.  I thought I'd start out with this cheaper
solution over the more expensive anti-virus packages.  The discussion
boards mention LittleSnitch quite often, but I also found Internet
Cleanup 2.0.  Both are about the same price.  Can anyone offer me
arguments for (or against) one of the two packages?

Thanks.

In article <d2a75b75.0410301154.2d344415@posting.google.com>,
 blakop@collegeclub.com (MacInBk) wrote:

> Hi.  I was recently browsing in a Google Group with my mac when the
> website would not allow me to continue on to the next page.  Instead,
> a message appeared stating that it would not let me proceed because it
> detected a virus or spyware.  Had I received an e-mail stating this I
> would have disregarded it, attributing it to some infected PC with my
> address in its addressbook.  However, since it came from Google, I
> became immediately concerned.

Web sites can't do that. You got an ad, probably through some linked 
content.

> How concerned should I be?

About spyware? You shouldn't be. About other kinds of malware? A trivial 
amount of diligence on your part is at least as effective as active 
software, without the costs (dollar cost, system resource consumption, 
low-level hooks into the system, ...).

G

-- 
Change account to gw when responding by mail.

MacInBk wrote:

> 
> How concerned should I be?

Unconcerned, as far as that google group message.
Just keep using Little Snitch and applying the security updates.

What you encountered was probably a spam message with embedded
html and dirty javascript tricks.  This is a good reason why, 
especially if one is using XP, one should turn off html when viewing
newsgroup or e-mail messages.

MacInBk <blakop@collegeclub.com> wrote:

> Hi.  I was recently browsing in a Google Group with my mac when the
> website would not allow me to continue on to the next page.  Instead,
> a message appeared stating that it would not let me proceed because it
> detected a virus or spyware. . . .

Invariably they are selling PC software. Since they didn't detect you
were using a Mac browser or OS, consider the source.

Bob Wilson

Yesterday, I ran Process Viewer while I was on-line and noticed
strange characters popup as active processes with an unknown user.  I
believe this is more than spam.  So you would recommend LittleSnitch
over Internet Cleanup?

MacInBk wrote:
> 
> Yesterday, I ran Process Viewer while I was on-line and noticed
> strange characters popup as active processes with an unknown user.  I
> believe this is more than spam. 

It's not spam; maybe java or some other intrusive process aimed at
XP users.  What was the website or newsgroup message?