"Illegal" programs on a Mac laptop

[moonjiver]

I have a conundrum, hoping someone is able to shed light on it.

One of my friends knows someone who has an Apple Mac laptop, not recent, which is used mainly for typing and other basics, also some photo-editing.

Apparently the laptop cannot be connected to the internet because "it has some illegal programs on it". Sounds bad! I don't have reason to think there is anything terrible on there - even so, it sounds very odd and I'm not sure the laptop owner is being straightforward about it.

I don't know whether the programs were once downloaded from somewhere, or maybe copied from another computer (possibly without licences?). But even if that were so, would such "illegal" programs actually prevent the laptop from functioning properly on broadband (maybe security software would detect things)? Or maybe they would interfere with other newer programs one might wish to install onto the laptop?

I don't understand the technology enough to know the truth of the matter, but I wonder if it makes sense to someone else?

[Richard]

Only on Windows 10 can 'pirated' software be disabled online by Microsoft:

http://www.alphr.com/microsoft/microsof ... l-hardware

It wouldn't stop connection to the internet - that sounds baloney!!

[moonjiver]

Thanks Richard. Others also have said that pirated software (or possibly downloaded malware?) would not interfere with access to the internet.

I am pretty sure the laptop owner is not being straight - even if somehow some malware had got onto the computer, I gather that there are fairly straightforward fixes, which might or might not include putting the computer onto factory settings and starting again.

The reason I am checking this out is because my friend's "friend" was supposed to be helping me towards choosing a new PC ("knew a lot about it"). But now I'm in a suspicious mood and don't feel able to trust the guy!

Why would anyone have "illegal" programs on their computer? And hence feel unable to hook up to the internet? Very odd. I'm going to try to get more precise info about the programs and how the situation arose.

[Richard]

Apple introduced malware detection to the Mac OS with Snow Leopard (Mac OS 10.6). This system consists of the quarantine of any app downloaded from the Internet, the use of Code Signing certificates to verify that an app is coming from a legit source, and regular security updates that include databases of known malware targeting the Mac OS. Apple introduced malware detection to the Mac OS with Snow Leopard (Mac OS 10.6).

[moonjiver]

Thanks for the comments. It seems that the laptop owner either doesn't know what he is talking about or is not being straightforward about things.

I rather guessed that there must be systems to detect malware or illegit programs - but, as you also say, the consensus is that access to the internet would not be impeded.

Anyway, why would someone restrict himself by not not hooking up to the internet? Half the point of having a computer lost thereby! All he needed to do was keep the nefarious programs on a separate old computer/laptop and upgrade to a new machine.

Definitely all very odd.