A good anti-virus? (Mac)

padocon

Title speaks for itself.
Free or not I don't mind.
Thanks in advance!

Run_to_da_hills

Macs don't get Viruses, so us PC heads are led to believe.

Gordon

Well, they didn't much but there's some botnet going around at the moment..

padocon

Anti-virus anyone?

Run_to_da_hills

Gordon wrote: »

Well, they didn't much but there's some botnet going around at the moment..

Mac Purists believe that the infiltration of Intel based chipsets are the cause of all this.

leeroybrown

I can't comment on the quality of any of these as I don't use any of them but here's a list of the ones I can think of. The internet should be full of reviews/comparisons of them.

Pay For:

• VirusBarrier X
• McAfee’s Virex
• Sophos’s Anti-Virus
• Symantec’s Norton AntiVirus

Free:

• iAntiVirus
• ClamXav

Macs are less susceptible to viruses than PCs mainly because very few are written to target them but that doesn't mean they won't start to appear soon. Currently the single biggest reason to have anti-virus software on a Mac is to prevent the user from inadvertently passing on infected files. I think that Apple need to take some large security steps under the hood to make the OS X user-space less vulnerable to attacks in future.

Talisman

You should be safe provided you haven't installed any illegal software.

You can use MacScan to check your system.

Sad Professor

You don't need an anti-virus app. But if you would like the placebo effect of some piece of s**t bloatware running in the background, or would like to protect your Windows-using brethren, then go ahead. But it's all kinda of pointless, since most of them are outdated and don't have much to scan for.

My advice: don't bother. If/when Mac viruses become a problem you'll hear about it. Until then there are better things to be wasting your system resources on.

jaffa20

Virus on a mac:eek:

Borneo Fnctn

There's no evidence to support this but I wouldn't be surprised if the virus programmers are somehow connected to anti virus companies. It certainly would benefit the likes of Norton to have more viruses being constantly written. Other than credit card fraud and the like, I can't see any practical motivation for virus programmers. Of course they may be vindictive arseholes. As for the software giants, they have the biggest incentive of all, $$$. It's not in the interest of these companies to wipe out malware. The cash cow would dry up. I might know very little about computers and maybe I'm too paranoid for my own good but I certainly won't be paying for bloating antivirus software.

padocon

Talisman wrote: »

You should be safe provided you haven't installed any illegal software.

You can use MacScan to check your system.

No I don't have any illegal software

Sad Professor wrote: »

You don't need an anti-virus app. But if you would like the placebo effect of some piece of s**t bloatware running in the background, or would like to protect your Windows-using brethren, then go ahead. But it's all kinda of pointless, since most of them are outdated and don't have much to scan for.

My advice: don't bother. If/when Mac viruses become a problem you'll hear about it. Until then there are better things to be wasting your system resources on.

Maybe I will wait till I hear of them!


Thanks everyone!

muggyog

So what about this then?

Sad Professor

muggyog wrote: »

So what about this then?

This is the botnet that was mentioned earlier. It was distributed with certain pirated copies of iWork and requires an admin password to do its thing. I haven't heard anything about this since. Nor do I know anyone who got it.

No one said Macs are immune to viruses or trojans but they aren't a problem at the moment. However, the tech press tends to blow even the vaguest of possible threats out of all proportion. I've been waiting for the supposed "onslaught" of Mac viruses for several years now and still nothing. I don't even pay attention to this crap anymore. Unless there's a substantial increase in the Mac's market-share, I can't see Mac viruses ever being a problem.

But s**tware like Norton and McAfee will do more damage to a Mac than any virus. And most of the other virus apps are too useless to be worth mentioning.

muggyog

I agree that there is a small risk from viruses on Macs but to ignore the threat appears to be a form of over zealous denial. Just because Macs aren't affected they can still propagate them in a mixed PC/Mac environment. Just use clamxav if you dont want to contribute to the antivirus company profits. Agree that the pay antivirus is s**tware (OS 9 was the last time I found Norton any use).

Sad Professor

I accept that if you are connected to and sharing files with a Windows network you should probably have AV installed. But if not there's really no point.

Denial? Of what? There is no threat to the Mac (or nothing worth talking about). That may change but until then you'd be as well wrapping your Mac in tinfoil. There's no protection for people who carelessly download pirated software and blindly enter their admin password whenever asked.

ClamX is fine for finding Windows viruses but its Mac definitions are outdated and it's a resource hog. If you are concerned about a Mac threat you'd be better off using iAnti-Virus, at least its Mac specific.

But I still think it's pointless.

Justin_k

Hi

I tend to take a different view on whether Macs need anti-virus.

I run Symantec anti-virus on a Macbook and have had no issues to-date, It does not appreciably impact the performance of the system at all.

Simple to install, regular updates and peace of mind.

J-blk

Justin_k wrote: »

peace of mind.

Has it ever detected anything though? The only threats I've heard of on Mac OS X (like the previously mentioned botnet) would require admin access to do anything, which you'd have to be pretty naive to give to an unknown application so really, what's the point of installing (and paying for) crapware like Norton or McAfee?

Wibbs

Bascially to stop macro virus spreading to mates PC's. That's common. I would say a goodly proportion of macs have word/excel macro viruses on them. It can make office twitchy for the mac too(twitchier than it is normally anyway) That's the main reason I have a virus checker.

edanto

A friend of mine has a very slow mac that might be sick from a virus. Macscan looks like more of a spyware cleaner than an anti-virus. Would anyone have another recommended programme, please?

edanto

Just found http://www.clamxav.com/ seems to be bona fide.

I'm seriously confused by these instructions thought -

"Drag ClamXav.app from the disk image into your Applications folder (or wherever you like)
Eject the ClamXav disk image
Double click ClamXav.app"

I've never used macs before and don't know how to follow this. I dragged the dmg file from the desktop to the trash - is that what's meant by 'eject the disk image?'

cheers

conchubhar1

yes

or you can right click and hit the eject option

leeroybrown

edanto wrote: »

I've never used macs before and don't know how to follow this. I dragged the dmg file from the desktop to the trash - is that what's meant by 'eject the disk image?'

Drag the drive on the desktop to the Trash icon (It'll become an eject icon) instead of the dmg file. It's the one that was created after you opened the dmg file.

Happy Radish

padocon wrote: »

Title speaks for itself.
Free or not I don't mind.
Thanks in advance!

I'm a Mac-user for more then 8 years and the only anti-virus software I use is a third-party firewall. I guess, it's enough, since I never have any safety problems. The curious one is ProteMac NetMine, check this out if you wish :cool: