mac os anti virus

sentofunosentofuno
Posted:
in Genius Bar edited January 2014
hi all



i've read a number of views on mac AV software. some say its necessary even tho OS X has no viruses to scan for win/linux viruses to stop macs from distributing, if not being infected by nasty stuff.



as a free gift for signing up to a subscription to macworld magazine i have a copy of intego's internet security barrier. is it worth installing? i have a mac mini with 10.4.3 in a mac/win/linux network at home.



thanks

Comments

  • Reply 1 of 7
    progmacprogmac Posts: 1,850member
    i would say that almost none of us here at AI have any sort of anti-virus program installed. like you said, it's really to keep from passing on windows viruses. I'm not even sure how this would happen unless you manually forwarded virus-ridden emails.



    Also, under sharing in system preferences you'll find a built-in firewall, which can take care of all the security you need. I wouldn't bother with that software package you mentioned.
  • Reply 2 of 7
    curiousuburbcuriousuburb Posts: 3,325member
    Also, intego is eeeeevil, there are rumours they have funded the creation of proof of concept malware just to sell 'cleaners' which are otherwise unneeded in OS X (as noted). Bad company. Bad. No biscuit.



    Do a search and read one of the dozens of prior threads on the topic.
  • Reply 3 of 7
    maccrazymaccrazy Posts: 2,658member
    McAfee and Norton have a habit of causing more harm than good. I tried an anti-virus program which was open-source but didn't like it. I know we shouldn't get complacent but even in the PC world a virus-protection isn't needed if you don't use IE or outlook and are careful what you download etc.



    Virus protection isn't really needed if you're careful.
  • Reply 4 of 7
    progmacprogmac Posts: 1,850member
    ack, i'm crazy. delete this
  • Reply 5 of 7
    gene cleangene clean Posts: 3,481member
    Use ClamXav - the software that ships with OS X Tiger Server. ClamXav uses the very popular open source ClamAV engine.
  • Reply 6 of 7
    omegaomega Posts: 427member
    I use Intego's NetBarrier. From the reading that I do this proggie seems to have a good rep with the 'pirate' community. However the AV component (which I also have), not too sure.....
  • Reply 7 of 7
    sentofunosentofuno Posts: 14member
    thanks for the response everyone



    i think i'll just use the AV stuff i have on my non-mac machines, if my mac isn't really at risk. seems simplest for me.
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