Mac/OSX antivirus

[FoxHound]

Hi,

I've been thinking of buying antivirus software for my macbook pro lately. I've been using this mac for almost a year and it's my first mac computer.

The problem is, i really have no idea what antivirus software/solution is great for mac and not much can i find about it either (there is still this attitude of 'mac's dont need antivirus' which i don't have much faith in).

So anybody know any good antivirus software for mac?



PS: i've had great experience with kaspersky 2009 for windows, but i have some bad experiences with the 2010/2011 versions for windows, because those versions slowed my windows laptop down back then. I don't know how kaspersky is right now, and especially not for the mac.

 

[Xenn]

Try giving avast! a try, there's a Mac OS version available you can try.

 

[bergauk]

Best Antivirus for a Mac that you've owned for a year? Keep on doing whatever you're doing cause it seems to be working.

Seriously, there aren't enough viruses for Mac's out there to warrant needing any sort of AV. Just stay smart, and maybe download some browser extensions that'll prevent bad sites from being loaded and that should do it.

If you're using Safari, I'd recommend Adblock and Web of Trust.
Same goes for Chrome[Not sure if Chrome is even available] and Firefox. That should keep you safe enough when using the internet to not warrant needing any AV.

 

[Azuremen]

You seem to be forgetting the rather large virus issue that developed on OS X earlier in the year.

Avast would be a solid bet.

 

[nick09]

Yeah. I've read that supposedly that 1 in every 36 macs have malware written for them. Plus there was a malware(forget the name of it) about 2-3 weeks ago that infected 600,000 macs. So I would not say the mac does not need anti-virus. A free version of an anti-virus like Avast would work fine(Well I've gotten away with a free version for so long on windows).

 

[bergauk]

You guys kind of missed what I was getting at.. He's gone for a year without it. He probably doesn't need it.

If he really wants one. The options out there are pretty slim. ClamXav, Avast!, and Sophos are the one's I can think of, and having never ever seen a Mac come into the workplace I was at, I can safely assume that you most likely won't need it.

 

[tlowr4]

Two words:

Karapasky (if you have money).
ClamXav (if you don't).

Simple as that in my opinion. I've got nothing but good things to say about both programs, ClamXav is a great virus searcher (it dosn't detect and defend on the spot though, it clearly to scan your computer), and Karapasky is the best all rounder. Don't waste your time with programs such as Norton, in my experience Kara just seems to be a better program overall.

 

[Sprite]

Second ClamXav

Before everyone goes nuts over Malware on OSX please read this small article on TUAW.

Sophos looked at 100,000 Mac computers and found that one in every five has some form of malware. This might sound alarming, but before you stare at your machine in disgust, you should get some perspective.

The survey looked at 100,000 OS X machines that are running Sophos's free Mac anti-virus software. Sophos found that this 20 percent figure is for malware that targets Windows-based computers. Though it can be used as a vector to infect other Windows machines, it won't affect Mac users on OS X.

Sophos did find that 1 in 36 Macs (2.7 percent) were infected with OS X malware. Though less than 3 percent may be concerning, it's not as alarming as the 20 percent figure that's making its way into headlines.

 

[thechosenwonton]

Clamav is terrible. Sophos is good, AND free.

 

[FoxHound]

Thank you all for the responses..

To be honest, i don't much need an anti-virus for my mac, but the issue with the Flashback malware that recently had infected over 600.000 macs raised my concerns.

Though i already use heavy anti-script extensions with firefox, i still want to keep the risks as minimal as possible since the mac is my main computersource and i don't feel like spending time in removing malware, in case it got infected.

I've read some nice things about ClamXav in the past few days and i'm going to research into that some more. Some user hinted about Kaspersky in this topic for the mac, so i'll take that into consideration also.


Thank you all for ur posts!

 

[Azuremen]

I use ClamWin myself, and quite like it. Same engine from what I recall, ClamAV, and it is very light and not intrusive - typically my biggest complaint about anti-virus software.

 

[thechosenwonton]

The main problem with Clamav (or ClamXav or ClamWin, all the same engine and definitions) are that they are much slower than Sophos or Kaspersky to have updated definitions. So you're more open to a zero day exploit/virus than you would be using either Sophos or Kaspersky.

I use Sophos purely for that reason; they are an enterprise security company that has been around forever, and has a team dedicated to collecting new viruses that are floating around the web - you can't say that about Clamav at all.

 

[Sprite]

@ Foxhound

If you are using Lion then I suggest getting the patch from Apple and turning off Java for the time been.

Here is a bit more info on Flashback Trojan from Macworld

What is Flashback?
Flashback is the name for a malicious software program discovered in September 2011 that tried to trick users into installing it by masquerading as an installer for Adobe Flash. (Antivirus vendor Intego believes Flashback was created by the same people behind the MacDefender attack that hit last year.) While the original version of Flashback and its initial variants relied on users to install them, this new form is what’s called in the security business a drive-by download: Rather than needing a user to install it, Flashback uses an unpatched Java vulnerability to install itself.

If you visit a malicious (or unwillingly infected) website hosting Flashback, the program attempts to display a specially crafted Java applet. (We don’t yet know how many websites host Flashback.) If you have a vulnerable version of Java installed and enabled in your Web browser, the malicious code will infect your system and then install a series of components. Since Apple did not release an update for that vulnerable version of Java until April 3rd, many users were and are still susceptible.