It's a shame that she encountered such pig-headedness. Unfortunately, it's all too common. That's why when one finds someone who knows what they're talking about and who is willing to work with you, it's a good idea to make them a friend for life. :-)

Google used to have a feature called [link|http://answers.google.com/answers/|Google Answers] which would let you pose a question, on almost any topic, and "experts" would post answers and receive a payment from you if you accepted the answer. It is impossible to vest the expertise of most people in a reasonable amount of time, though. They [link|http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Google_Answers|retired it in December].

There doesn't seem to be anything comparable out there now, but you could try looking around [link|http://www.google.com/Top/Reference/Ask_an_Expert/|here].

In Ye Olden Tymes one would attend the local Mac users group meeting and pick the brain of attendees. Perhaps one of the ones [link|http://www.mugcenter.com/surfboard#California|here] is nearby and/or has a good web site?

OS X should be pretty secure (being UNIX under the hood), but there have been [link|http://www.macintouch.com/security-osx.html|ways to get a trojan on the system]. I find it hard to believe that Apple has left gaping doorways in their network hardware (IOW, off should be off.). But browse around [link|http://www.securemac.com/|here] and/or similar sites to see what they recommend and the verified issues. File "permissions" seem to be quite often mangled a bit on our Ti PowerBook, and I'm sure it isn't infected. There may be another explanation for the weirdness that she's seeing (other than being infected). It should be possible to check it in "Target Disk Mode" when connected to a known-good Mac.

Maybe take a look at [link|http://www.clamxav.com/|ClamXAV]. It's free.

Caveat Emptor, YMMV, IANAL, etc. Good luck!

Cheers,
Scott.