It is common practice for lots of users not to have an antivirus installed in their mac. Even if the viruses cannot infect the mac, can viruses be carried in it and spread to a pc via a usb stick? Is it safe to exchange files via usb stick, with a mac that uses no antivirus protection?
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What do you mean by virus carried in Mac? Are you presuming virus did infect the Mac and as such can the same virus spread to other platforms if carried on the usb stick?– Marko VodopijaMay 9, 2017 at 11:40
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I use the term carried because the virus might be designed for windows and not do anything to a mac but just existing in the system. The same way any file would do.– papakiasMay 9, 2017 at 12:49
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If the malware is designed for Windows, it can't be executed on Mac and in turn can't spread itself to USB sticks. It is not active. This does not exclude a multi platform malware if such exists that WILL execute on Mac and then infect USB Sticks in a way that USB stick would infect other platforms if used including Windows. I don't know if such malware exists though.– Marko VodopijaMay 9, 2017 at 12:53
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1IMHO, it is possible. The virus must make sure usb stick is using FAT32 , not NTFS, to avoid trigger a read only access warning. In addition, it must also make sure it is not using HFS . This kind of behaviour is enough to trigger conspiracy theory on the virus creator origin.– mootmootMay 9, 2017 at 13:46
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