Member Avatar for jeysiaye

My work computer is a Mac OS X and before working here I am not very familiar to Macs. It's been a couple of months but the people I'm sending documents out to are saying that the emails that they have been getting from me have viruses.

Does that mean that my computer has a virus?

If yes, how do I fix it?

Thanks!

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Dani AI

Generated

Short expert addendum addressing the thread participants (, , , ):

Most likely causes are (a) a harmless Mac sending a file that triggers Windows antivirus on recipients, (b) the email account being hijacked or spoofed, or (c) a false positive on the recipients' end. A local Mac infection is possible but far less common than those three, so start by confirming origins before assuming the Mac itself is infected. Firewalls (as suggested) help against some network attacks but do not stop infected attachments or account compromise; that nuance is important.

Practical diagnostic checklist:

  • Request the recipients to forward the exact flagged message or antivirus alert, including full headers. Compare the message headers to messages in Mail.app Sent to see if the mail actually left from the account or was spoofed.
  • Inspect the actual attachment type. Files with .exe, .scr, .vbs or macro-enabled Office docs commonly trigger Windows AV engines even when the sender is on a Mac. When unsure, convert documents to PDF before sending.
  • Scan the Mac and the attachment with a Mac-capable scanner (GUI frontends to ClamAV, or commercial Mac AVs) or use an online multi-engine scanner to confirm detection. Keep a backup before altering or deleting files.
  • Secure the account: change the email password, enable any available two-factor authentication, and verify SMTP settings so the account cannot be used as an open relay.

Quick checks (run in Terminal):

sw_vers
osascript -e 'tell application "System Events" to get the name of every login item'

If the flagged messages are not present in Sent, treat the incident as account compromise or spoofing and notify recipients. Because macOS 10.5.8 is long out of date, consider upgrading or isolating that machine for sensitive accounts.

Recommended Answers

All 5 Replies

Member Avatar for Danarchy

Doubtful.
But you can send infected files, etc.

Member Avatar for Inverse

Well, so many people tend to think macs are virus-free... it's not true at all! You should at least install a firewall (e.g. Protemac Netmine) - it must be enough.

Member Avatar for termatt56

Macs actually are virus free, there are only trojans. However as already noted in this friends Macs can pass on Windows viruses.

Member Avatar for Inverse

Macs actually are virus free, there are only trojans. However as already noted in this friends Macs can pass on Windows viruses.

Sure, that's what I meant.

Member Avatar for Inverse

Hi guys
As for me for protecting mac i prefer use NetMine.It's really good tool.Try:)

Hi, this program has already been mentioned, thank you anyway.

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