iTunes = Viruses?

[HappyPeasant]

Hey guys I'm just going to start with what I need help with. First my parrents don't believe me they think that iTunes is secure and that you don't have a chance to get a virus. I know that to be wrong. Last summer I left on vacation. While I was gone my brother got on and downloaded a bunch of music for his iPod. When I returned it would log on but froze up. We took it to the tech guy and he couldn't get on. Now the issue comes to why I put a password on the computer. I put it on to keep things like that from happening. They say it wasn't his fault. Could some high-rep people agree with me please...

Thanks ahead of time.

 

[Sevion]

If you were downloading only mp4, mp3 etc. then no. Only stuff like dll's, exe's, bats, etc. are possible viruses.

 

[HappyPeasant]

Hey Sevion, If so why can you get virus off of Limewire?

 

[13lade619]

well, i downloaded an mp3 once... and it had a trojan.

 

[Romek]

I seriously doubt iTunes contains viruses though.
Limewire might. But iTunes wouldn't.

Could just be a problem with iTunes or your computer. Or maybe some other virus you have which affects iTunes.

 

[UndeadDragon]

If you buy the official music off iTunes, I highly doubt that it would contain a virus. Limewire on the other hand contains files which are downloaded off other people and these may contain viruses.

 

[Xorifelse]

You shouldn't even "highly doubt" ITunes contains viruses.
ITunes and its music you can pay for does NOT and will NEVER contain any virus.

Limewire on the other hand does contain viruses, and a lot of them.
There are better alternatives for Limewire, I'd suggest you seek them out.
The reason why Limewire contains viruses is because the files are rendered from a master server, sending you locations where to get parts of the file.
The parts of the file can be for example on my computer, infected by me.

 

[sqrage]

Anything you download with iTunes will not contain a virus.

Media that you download elsewhere (Limewire, BitTorrent, FrostWire), and then import into iTunes can contain viruses.

 

[Wargasm]

anything you download from itunes prolly has no virus. Since it would hurt them very baddly

http://neworder.box.sk/

 

[Lobster]

anything you download from itunes prolly has no virus. Since it would hurt them very baddly

http://neworder.box.sk/

true, Itunes is property of apple, and if anyone found out they gave out viruses, they would be sued off their asses. Also, it would hurt ipod sales

 

[w/e]

If you download itunes off the official apple website, there is no chance of getting a virus.
If you download music off of the official itunes store, there is no chance of getting a virus.

Some versions of limewire come bundled with viruses.
You have to choose what you download off of limewire very carefully.

.mp3 files are fine and so are most video and music files.

Be careful of files like this:

.exe .bat .dll .reg

If you've downloaded of of those, DO NOT attempt to open them unless you're absolutely sure of what you're doing

 

[swe_suffer]

.mp3 files are fine and so are most video and music files.

Some "genius" hax0r actually made it possible to include viruses in MP3s.. :thdown:

 

[Romek]

It's not difficult to just change the file extension.
I could make an image have a *.mp3 extension if I wanted. Though I'd have to Right Click -> Open with to be able to view it.
It's just as easy for *.exe files to have *.mp3 extensions.

 

[swe_suffer]

An article: http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A30320-2004Dec27.html