As we all know, in general macs aren't susceptible to viruses. Usually when a virus or trojan of some type is developed, it's a proof of concept and never actually makes it out into the wild. Recently, though, a few have, and it's caught the attention of some big media outlets.

The truth is that they're usually trojans, and the way os x is designed, you are required to give permission to install them on your machine. They are usually embedded in websites, porn sites is what are usually reported, and a dialog window will pop up saying that "such and such plugin is required for the playback of this video." People click on it and then give it permission to be installed. One that was reported as discovered on November first (though it's already quite old) is being distributed to porn sites as well as through fake codec sites.

Apple recently issued an article in their support section about antivirus utilities. Read it here: support.apple.com/kb/HT2550

Antivirus utilities can be a bit annoying, and in general they'll slow down a machine while doing scans. This slows down the disk and causes dropped frames and other such problems. Antivirus utilities ARE useful in that they will prevent your passing on viruses to machines that would be susceptible. In any case, if you decide to install any antivirus utilities, make sure to turn them off before doing video work.

The key thing is to be careful. Don't visit sites you don't trust, don't click on stupid pop-ups (you know, the ones made to look like windows system alarms and the like), and don't install things unless you know exactly what it does and that it's coming from a secure source. Also, remember this: You have to give things permission to be installed on your mac. Make REALLY sure you know what it is that you're installing before you actually do.

Articles:
www.vnunet.com/vnunet/news/2202526/alleg...shing-trojan-targets
www.boygeniusreport.com/2008/11/22/secur...ol-are-on-the-loose/
arstechnica.com/news.ars/post/20071101-r...-is-not-falling.html

Resources:
SecureMac has a utility that will scan your machine for the codec trojan. You can read about it and download it here: www.macnn.com/articles/08/01/03/trojan.removal.tool/

Thanks for the update. I guess this means more people then used to or using Macs, other wise it would not be worth some ones time to write a viruses.

Just to let you all know, Apple has pulled the knowledgebase article that I referenced above. There's a different post now that talks about how OS X is built to not be susceptible to viruses and the like, but that antivirus utilities can be useful.