Anti-Virus Software?

[1Frothy]

I have gained a Mac on my desk, it's an oldie but it runs OS X 10.4.x, got 512MB RAM.

Do I need an anti-virus scanner for it? If so, is there a freeware or open source one that works well?

[Hell-In-A-Handbasket]

there are few known viri for Mac's, and all of the holes ave been closed as far as i know

the last viri for Mac's was in May of 06 called Leap

before that i think it was about 7 years ago

the recent one was regarding iPods, but the iPods have to have linux installed and the viro purposly installed and run from the iPod, and ONLY affects the Linux iPod

[1Frothy]

So no point installing any sort of anti-virus then.

[Hell-In-A-Handbasket]

not atm, but i can see in the future when Mac's become more popular. same with Spyware.

[1Frothy]

I always assumed that Mac's were less prone to Virii because of them being based on BSD and therefore secure by design?!

[osirisX]

Well they are. Increased marketshare may not cause more viruses to be written for OS X. It's really anyones guess at the moment.

[Hell-In-A-Handbasket]

they are,, pluss the added benifit of Obscurity

aka were to small in numbers to be worth peoples time to specifically target us

[temple_treefrog]

not atm, but i can see in the future when Mac's become more popular. same with Spyware.

It's not just because Macintosh has less market share. There are other reasons why Mac is more secure than Windows. With that being said, Mac's do have vulnerabilities but no where near as many as Windows.

* By Ryan Faas.

* Date: Apr 6, 2007.

Is It a Myth?

So, if Mac OS X has a series of vulnerabilities, does that mean Mac users who believe their computers are completely safe and without need of security precautions are wrong? Yes. Like any operating system, Mac OS X has its share of exploitable weaknesses.

Does it mean that the Mac is completely unsecured and is as likely to suffer the level of threats that Windows does? No. There will probably never be the same breadth of effort to target Mac OS X as there is with Windows. As such, there will probably always be some security by obscurity. But that doesn?t mean that there will remain as small a number of actual threats as there are today. Apple?s move to Intel hardware will make it easier to write or convert the existing payloads of malicious code to targets Mac OS X.

Because of the differences between Mac OS X and Windows, it is somewhat easier to secure a Mac than it is to secure Windows and to maintain that security. This means that although Mac users will likely continue to enjoy more security, they do need to know that they are not immune to threats and should be concerned with ensuring that they protect their computers.

And to answer the original questiyes there is free open source anti-vihere. If you decide to download it make sure you download the latest definitions. It will remove any W.32 virus you may have on your Mac.

Edited April 17, 2007 by kizzaaa

[Chad]

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