55 replies to this topic

[einsteinbqat]

TrekRich, on 15 April 2012 - 10:51, said:

I am using and recommending Sophos, was just wondering about others. Now i know there are more out there i might try them all and look at RAM usage

I have never really paid attention to the RAM it uses. Does it use a lot? This is what Activity Monitor tells me.

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[Scorbing]

einsteinbqat, on 15 April 2012 - 14:58, said:

I have never really paid attention to the RAM it uses. Does it use a lot? This is what Activity Monitor tells me.

I have an iMac and I recently installed Sophos because of the Flash virus deal. I scanned the computer and all is good but to be honest, I don't have it running in the background. I use my Mac for business stuff only. I don't visit porn sites, poker sites or warez sites or do anything stupid with it so I'm not really too worried about catching a virus on it. Besides, Apple has a reputation to keep and their ego is way up there. They will never allow a virus or viruses to attack and destroy OSX so you can be sure they will patch whatever security holes come up within hours to make OSX secure again.

[einsteinbqat]

I totally agree with you. Of course, one who knows what one is doing really does help. For the others (like the parents, the little siblings, family and friends), AV is always a good thing.

BTW, Sophos has a new version (8) of their free AV for Mac.

[PyX]

I’m running none. I remember I installed Clam something for a day, scanned my Mac just for the fun of testing a Mac antivirus, and then I removed it. Naturally, it didn’t find anything.

[migo]

Simon-, on 15 April 2012 - 04:20, said:

How can you tell which actually work and which ones do nothing at all? There is not a lot out there to test with

So at the moment they should have a 100% detection rate. Hell, they should be able to use heuristics to detect any software that makes use of known exploits. But that's my concern with the Mac at the moment - it's getting actively targetted with malware, but there's no idea which software properly protects. At least with Windows you know that MSE is free and relatively non-intrusive, so it isn't a case where the cure is worse than the disease, and it does actually catch malware, or alternatively if you buy WebRoot Secure Anywhere and install it on a clean system you're close to 100% guaranteed you won't get any new infections. The devil you know is better than the devil you don't.

Right now I would just pick a free Mac AV program that uses the least resources possible, run FireFox with NoScript and Web of Trust and make damn sure I know what I'm downloading.

[+cooky560]

Nothing, and no problems as far as I can see. The best defence is not clicking on links.

[Billus]

I believe that having an "antivirus" program on your Mac would be like giving it a virus, using system resources that would otherwise be free. There's no need for one and if you can wait, there will be one built into Mountain Lion. I've haven't used an antivirus program since I started using Vista, there's just no need. Microsoft does a good job looking after its OS and I'm sure Apple will do so too. The amount of crap and popups that result in installing a majority of antivirus programs is just not worth it.

[migo]

Billus, on 16 April 2012 - 10:39, said:

I believe that having an "antivirus" program on your Mac would be like giving it a virus, using system resources that would otherwise be free. There's no need for one and if you can wait, there will be one built into Mountain Lion. I've haven't used an antivirus program since I started using Vista, there's just no need. Microsoft does a good job looking after its OS and I'm sure Apple will do so too. The amount of crap and popups that result in installing a majority of antivirus programs is just not worth it.

Your faith is completely misplaced. Apple won't take care of security until they repeatedly get hit with malware and it causes them seriously bad publicity.

[bbfc_uk]

I use Sophos. I've tried Avast!, Norton and McAfee.

@einsteinbqat - thanks for the heads up about the new version. Downloading it now.

[bbfc_uk]

Billus, on 16 April 2012 - 10:39, said:

I believe that having an "antivirus" program on your Mac would be like giving it a virus, using system resources that would otherwise be free. There's no need for one and if you can wait, there will be one built into Mountain Lion.

Gatekeeper is not a malware detector or antivirus system.

[+Azusa]

Glassed Silver, on 14 April 2012 - 21:18, said:

Same here...
Even though I'm frequenting the back alleys of the net quite often, I've never caught crap.

Glassed Silver:mac

those aren't back alleys those are just poorly lit streets now the places i go to now they're pretty grotty.

[offroadaaron]

Scorbing, on 15 April 2012 - 15:25, said:

I have an iMac and I recently installed Sophos because of the Flash virus deal. I scanned the computer and all is good but to be honest, I don't have it running in the background. I use my Mac for business stuff only. I don't visit porn sites, poker sites or warez sites or do anything stupid with it so I'm not really too worried about catching a virus on it. Besides, Apple has a reputation to keep and their ego is way up there. They will never allow a virus or viruses to attack and destroy OSX so you can be sure they will patch whatever security holes come up within hours to make OSX secure again.

So what happens when you send an email to a PC user and it has a virus and they get infected? and imagine if it's a disribution list! That makes your business or whoever you work for look really bad.

[Rudy]

bbfc_uk, on 17 April 2012 - 10:36, said:

Gatekeeper is not a malware detector or antivirus system.

To be fair, if you set Gatekeeper to only allow signed apps (I couldn't do it personally), you will be just as safe

[Miuku.]

offroadaaron, on 17 April 2012 - 12:47, said:

So what happens when you send an email to a PC user and it has a virus and they get infected?

Well I don't know about your ISP or mail provider but we have the mail server scan all the content with Bitdefender / Amavis+Clam before it's sent out so even if I sent out an infected attachment, it would be cleaned / quarantined before it reached anyone else.

[Barney]

Changed title and pinned this. I think that we will be seeing a lot more of this in the near future.