Path: csiph.com!fu-berlin.de!uni-berlin.de!individual.net!not-for-mail From: Jolly Roger Newsgroups: comp.sys.mac.system Subject: Re: spinning beach ball of death Date: 3 Sep 2015 01:10:29 GMT Organization: People for the Ethical Treatment of Pirates Lines: 70 Message-ID: References: <1ma6agj.zj3xxx1cxwkteN%dempson@actrix.gen.nz> X-Trace: individual.net kDqCbkn/IJS3ng3fHr9tjw3LisCaQxiiKyAcw2w/LTCb+hrIVB Cancel-Lock: sha1:1nTUMuuOxH4rAp2QMzPKOh0HgQw= X-Face: _.g>n!a$f3/H3jA]>9pN55*5<`}Tud57>1Y%b|b-Y~()~\t,LZ3e up1/bO{=-) User-Agent: slrn/1.0.1 (Darwin) Xref: csiph.com comp.sys.mac.system:79472 On 2015-09-03, David Empson wrote: > Ken Springer wrote: > >> If this was a Windows machine, I'd be on top of it with Malwarebytes and >> AV software. She has a version of AVG installed, not sure which one, >> that is running on a trial basis. But the trial expires in 2 days. I >> suggested she remove AVG and install either Avira Free or Avast Free >> (personal preferences for me), that way we can see if the new software >> finds something AVG did not. > > AVG or other antivirus software might be CAUSING the beachballs, e.g. if > it stalls the computer while it examines a file being opened, or if it > causes performance issues while checking for or fetching its updates. > > Uninstalling it would be a useful test. Yep, glad someone thought to mention this. Anti-virus software for OS X is notoriously badly-behaved and buggy. It's more of a gimmick than useful, and very often causes more problems than it solves. For OS X, it's next to useless, as these articles show: >> My question is, can malware of this type be installed on a Mac? > > Not really. There has been practically nothing in the way of worms or > similar automatically installed malware on Mac OS X. The main risk is in > the realm of trojan horses, where something malicious tricks you into > installing and running it. > > In theory, there could be some kinds of drive-by attacks through vectors > such as insecure Java or Flash plugins for web browsers, but keeping > software updated usually prevents that. > > Those running outdated OS versions, web browsers, etc. are more likely > to be at risk due to known security issues, but then we get into > security by obscurity territory: a small portion of an already small > portion of the installed base is not likely to be worth making a big > effort to attack. Yes. >> I've never seen the subject discussed, too new to this newsgroup >> possibly, but I've seen a lot of people say they don't use AV software >> either. And I've seen Windows users on Usenet that don't run AV software >> either. > > I've never run AV software regularly on my Macs. Once or twice I've > installed some and done a one-off pass to check that I hadn't picked up > anything. It only found a few old email attachments (which were Windows > malware anyway), and an inert copy I had deliberately kept of one piece > of Mac-specific malware that had infected the Mac of someone I know (one > of the variants of the so-called "Flashback" malware from around 2011 or > 2012). Before OS X, when I used classic Mac OS, I ran Disinfectant from time to time on some of my machines, because those machines were exposed to floppy & Zip disks that would sometimes be used at the local Kinkos. I started doing that after discovering an INIT virus on one of them. After OS X, like you, I have never run anti-virus software regularly. There's simply no need for it. -- E-mail sent to this address may be devoured by my ravenous SPAM filter. I often ignore posts from Google. Use a real news client instead. JR