Traditionally, Apple Mac computers have been – for the most part – immune to viruses and spyware. Perhaps this was the case because Macs comprised a smaller share of the market than their Windows counterparts. But as the popularity of OSX continues to grow, the risk of an attack by a malware virus will also increase.

In anticipation of such a threat, Steve Jobs and his team have incorporated a defense into the new Snow Leopard operating system. Under older versions every time a user tried to open any file that was an internet download, a warning would pop up and ask if they really wanted to open that file. The user was given the choice to confirm or cancel.

Under Mac OSX 10.6 the downloaded file is now compared to a list of malicious software. If the file is infected the user gets a warning telling them as much and is given the option to abort the operation. Currently, the list of trojans is very short but will be kept up to date by Apple.

This built in malware protection feature is another good reason to make the Snow Leopard upgrade.

I’m not exactly a computer wizard. I know how to use them, certainly, but I don’t know a lot about how they tick or how to take care of them. Unfortunately I found out the hard way that not taking care of your PC and having upfront protection instead of a free client will get you into trouble, Bam I was hit with the Worm win32 trojan.”

I thought only people who went to bad sites got infected. Of course, a Worm Win32 isn’t a worm like that, it’s a malicious computer program that burrows into a computer and starts making trouble. The win32 virus that attacked me got in from a fake video codec. I did not know this at the time but it is possible to make a virus open up as soon as hit hits the users mail box. This isn’t normal, of course, but it meant that as soon as I got the e-mail worm it took over my computer. A Great site to check that has some removal guides on it is this win32 b site.

I immediately noticed a slowdown in my computer’s speed, and I noticed that a lot of the time the computer would do things I didn’t tell it to do, or would ignore my commands. Friends were getting e-mails from me that I was not sending out and they were MAD. It was like my computer was possessed! Afraid that I was going to loose all my data and not 100% sure if I was infected at the time I called up a good friend. Right away he told me I was definitely infected and that I should have it removed ASAP. He suggested just having this computer repair company remove the virus for me. He took a real shining to this company and said he even uses them for more advanced issues at his work place. It’s a remote computer repair company that remotes in and is very cool watching them work. They did remove my worm win32 but little did I know there were about 102 other traces of things. One was Called trojan.virtumonde and another was Zlob.bq or something wired like that.

These botnet programs are run by hackers who infect thousands of computers and then they execute a code all at once to try and down servers or do other ill intentioned acts. Luckily, the above mentioned remote PC repair company was able to find the Storm Worm, one of the Worm Win32 variety, and they eliminated the threat.

Now I know better than to open attachments I’ve got complete protection and the best help available! It’s not always easy to understand computer related issues and if you’re a bit of a tech challenged person like me then it’s great to have help when it’s needed.