An open community 
of Macintosh users,
for Macintosh users.

FineTunedMac Dashboard widget now available! Download Here

Previous Thread
Next Thread
Print Thread
How to prevent Botnets from recruiting my Mac?
#16320 06/27/11 04:15 AM
Joined: Aug 2009
JoBoy Offline OP
OP Offline

Joined: Aug 2009
How do you guard against a botnet planting a bot on your computer and using you as a distribution platform for spam, etc.?


Mac Pro dual Quad-Core Intel Xeons Early 2008; 16GB RAM; MacOS X 10.11.6, iOS 9.3.5
Re: How to prevent Botnets from recruiting my Mac?
JoBoy #16324 06/27/11 02:22 PM
Joined: Aug 2009
Likes: 16
Moderator
Online
Moderator

Joined: Aug 2009
Likes: 16
Tacit is the real expert on this, but I will start the ball rolling with the following:
  1. The greatest threat to your Mac's security is sitting in front of the monitor and keyboard —ie. you
  2. Be sure you have a good account password, at least 8 characters, numbers and mixed case letters, no word that is in the dictionary
  3. Use the same rules for all internet accounts and use different passwords for each internet account
  4. In your browser preferences, turn off any option to automatically open "safe" files on download
  5. Any time a web site indicates you need to download something to "better view this site" treat that site and anything on that site as if it is a malware bomb ready to go off at the slightest touch
  6. If you ever get a popup or popunder or any other unexpected warning that your computer may be infected by a virus and/or offering to "test" your computer for malware the test is guaranteed to be a false warning and the test itself is malware.
  7. Only download software from sites you navigate to and you know to be reputable
  8. Do not download any pirated software
  9. Remember any offer that sounds too good to be true is almost certainly too good to be true
  10. Install a good antivirus software package, but remember this:
    1. Much of today's malware is either undetectable by virus checkers or disables the AV software befor it can warn you of the danger
    2. In spite of the claims of some AV vendors, no AV software can detect a virus until the virus has been recognized and its signature added to the signature database used by your software
    3. Trojans, scareware, etc.. that are the primary danger on the Mac are installed by the user and are considered applications by AV software therefore not reported
  11. Store all security information on all your devices in a secure password protected application. Prefereably one that you can synchronize between your computer, iPhone, iPad, iPod, etc. There are several on the market. Two I have used, "Password Wallet" and "Datavault Password Manager" (and others) are available through the APP Store.
  12. Perhaps most important of all — keep OS X up to date and immediately install any and all security updates
I am sure others will chime in with additional suggestions

Last edited by joemikeb; 06/27/11 02:23 PM. Reason: correct typo

If we knew what it was we were doing, it wouldn't be called research, would it?

— Albert Einstein
Re: How to prevent Botnets from recruiting my Mac?
joemikeb #16328 06/27/11 04:29 PM
Joined: Aug 2009
JoBoy Offline OP
OP Offline

Joined: Aug 2009
Great advice!!! Thank you.

What about Apple's built-in Keychain as a place to store security information? I thought that was its purpose.


Mac Pro dual Quad-Core Intel Xeons Early 2008; 16GB RAM; MacOS X 10.11.6, iOS 9.3.5
Re: How to prevent Botnets from recruiting my Mac?
JoBoy #16330 06/27/11 07:46 PM
Joined: Aug 2009
Likes: 16
Moderator
Online
Moderator

Joined: Aug 2009
Likes: 16
Keychain works fine on the Mac, but it is not transportable to other Apple iDevices. crazy


If we knew what it was we were doing, it wouldn't be called research, would it?

— Albert Einstein
Re: How to prevent Botnets from recruiting my Mac?
JoBoy #16332 06/27/11 09:32 PM
Joined: Aug 2009
Offline

Joined: Aug 2009
Originally Posted By: JoBoy
What about Apple's built-in Keychain as a place to store security information? I thought that was its purpose.

That is what it's for, but the stuff you put in it is only as safe as its password. See my post on another forum discussing what you need to do to keep your keychain secure.

Re: How to prevent Botnets from recruiting my Mac?
ganbustein #16342 06/28/11 02:26 PM
Joined: Aug 2009
Likes: 16
Moderator
Online
Moderator

Joined: Aug 2009
Likes: 16
Originally Posted By: gangbustein
That is what it's for, but the stuff you put in it is only as safe as its password

See item 2 in my previous list of suggestions. The only reason it is number 2 is because the first responsiblity for security can only be with the user.


If we knew what it was we were doing, it wouldn't be called research, would it?

— Albert Einstein

Moderated by  alternaut, dianne, MacManiac 

Link Copied to Clipboard
Powered by UBB.threads™ PHP Forum Software 7.7.4
(Release build 20200307)
Responsive Width:

PHP: 7.4.33 Page Time: 0.014s Queries: 27 (0.010s) Memory: 0.5937 MB (Peak: 0.6667 MB) Data Comp: Zlib Server Time: 2024-03-29 05:51:33 UTC
Valid HTML 5 and Valid CSS