[Help] Free OS X Antivirus Recommendation?


Recommended Posts

Hey all,

I'm in need of a free antivirus application for OS X, preferably one that runs in the background with minimal popups/notifications/other annoyances.

Also, no cheeky "I JUST USE COMMON SENSE"/"MACS DONT GET VIRUSES" etc comments, as this isn't for me, but a less-than-responsible friend of mine.

TIA :D

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I honestly wouldn't worry about it. Doing so would be like installing a program that just takes 5% of your computer away. It's not going to do anything. OSX has been out for nearly ten years and there are no legitimate virus threats. When there is one, it'll be so over the news that you won't be able to ignore it.

That being said, http://www.clamxav.com/ If you feel like wasting your time/resources.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I agree, there is no real threat. Mac viruses do exist but they don't really do much. ClamXav will suit your needs if you're looking for a free one though.

It even says on the ClamXav page that there is no threat. xD Irony.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Unless you are actively seeking illegal cracks and keygens for software in shady places, I wouldn't worry about it.

I'd would almost say the same about Windows as well.

I wouldn't. You really never know when a friend might send you something infected that they didn't know about.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I wouldn't. You really never know when a friend might send you something infected that they didn't know about.

But there again I would not worry about it if you pay attention to what you are really download whether though e-mail or website. The problem I see is the way Microsoft set default for some option in particular "Hide extensions for known file types" should default to not checked. I have seen that one on a lot of customers computers they thing there downloading a picture because Windows is hiding part of the extension and there for the file looks like picture.jpg instead of picture.jpg.exe.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I only know of 2 people who have antivirus installed on a Mac - both have Kaspersky- and they only use it because they often pull things from Windows computers and don't want to spread anything. (Mainly though they use them to scan thumb-drives)

But really the 4 other Mac users I know don't even bother running one.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Another vote for ClamXav -- it's free and it does the job without interfering with other stuff. When I first got my Macbook I installed Avast!, simply because I use it on Windows and find it to be very good. The Mac version is dreadful, though.

Everything said, I don't run ClamXav as a background scanner, I just fire it up every now and then to do a full system scan. It hasn't found any viruses on my machine so far...

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I don't use anti-virus software on Windows, Mac OS X or Linux. You really don't need to if you're a well-disciplined computer user.

false. You can get infected just loading a web page. Wake up to the real world man. Unless you unplug your network cable/or do not connect Wi-Fi

Link to comment
Share on other sites

false. You can get infected just loading a web page. Wake up to the real world man. Unless you unplug your network cable/or do not connect Wi-Fi

Maybe if you are using IE. And 6 at that. Newer versions are pretty locked down. Human input is needed in most cases, phishing type scams are common now.

http://www.kaspersky.com/viruswatchlite?search_virus=.osx.&hour_offset=-11&x=8&y=5

- There is a list of the last 5 years of malware on OSX. It's 2 pages long. And a good amount of them are hardly even malware.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

false. You can get infected just loading a web page. Wake up to the real world man. Unless you unplug your network cable/or do not connect Wi-Fi

Okay, show me a web page that will give me a virus just by loading it in a web browser.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Okay, show me a web page that will give me a virus just by loading it in a web browser.

Don't play that game with me. You'll find one yourself sometime or another. Ohh... But you won't know, you just don't use any kind of threat protection.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

the reason there is no nastys on mac os because it has a small market shear, if i was going to make a virus i would want it to damage the most computers so i pick windows and its easy to program

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Don't play that game with me. You'll find one yourself sometime or another. Ohh... But you won't know, you just don't use any kind of threat protection.

Yes, if I visit shady websites or click on every e-mail attachment, I'll probably get a virus. But I don't, because I use common sense, as do a lot of people.

The best anti-virus software in the world won't stop stupid people from doing stupid things.

the reason there is no nastys on mac os because it has a small market shear, if i was going to make a virus i would want it to damage the most computers so i pick windows and its easy to program

Only partially true. True, Mac OS X has low market share (as does Linux and virtually any other non-Windows OS), but the other truth is that Mac OS X is considerably secure by design, being an officially licensed Unix OS. Unix has been around since the 1960s and has long been heralded for its security.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

the reason there is no nastys on mac os because it has a small market shear, if i was going to make a virus i would want it to damage the most computers so i pick windows and its easy to program

Except that's not how it works. Mac OS 8 and 9 had a much smaller market share than Mac OS X does today and they were affected by viruses out in the wild...

Link to comment
Share on other sites

...

Only partially true. True, Mac OS X has low market share (as does Linux and virtually any other non-Windows OS)

I might remind you that you are speaking desktop/client only. Linux is doing extremely well in the server and other areas.

And Linux has had its share of malware, like Slapper.

The final truth is, most all malware exploits not the software, but shoddy administration. Poor passwords yield compromize via brute force attack. Out of date software provides a vector for malware using known (and PATCHED) exploits.

I have contended that Windows and Linux can be made indistinguishably secure with proper administration. And both are trivial to compromize when improperly administered.s

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Except that's not how it works. Mac OS 8 and 9 had a much smaller market share than Mac OS X does today and they were affected by viruses out in the wild...

Mac OS 8 and 9 also had a nasty habit of crashing when the OS was doing nothing at all. Not having protected memory will do that to you.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I dunno. We all know that OS X is not as secure as Apple say - but it's still secure in a practical point of view.

So in closing,

Yes, there is a Free OS X Antivirus which you can use. You can use it if you want, nobodys asking you for money for it. You lose nothing.

So download it, just for the sake of it. And run it. Post under here if it's ever found a virus using it. \/

Link to comment
Share on other sites

This topic is now closed to further replies.
  • Recently Browsing   0 members

    • No registered users viewing this page.