Become a MacRumors Supporter for $50/year with no ads, ability to filter front page stories, and private forums.

Antivirus?

  • Avast

    Votes: 0 0.0%
  • Sophos

    Votes: 0 0.0%

  • Total voters
    32

jbarol

macrumors newbie
Original poster
Oct 24, 2013
8
0
Hi All,

Having a few problems with the search feature here, so I was wondering:

What Antivirus do you use?
 

Shrink

macrumors G3
Feb 26, 2011
8,929
1,727
New England, USA
Hi All,

Having a few problems with the search feature here, so I was wondering:

What Antivirus do you use?

You do not need an anti-virus for OS X. There are not now, nor have there ever been, any viruses in the wild that effect OS X.

OS X is not immune to viruses, but thus far there have been none in the wild that have been a problem or infected Macs. There are other forms of malware that can effect Macs, but the best way to avoid them is safe computing.

If you really want to, you can get ClamX, which will scan for nasties and quarantine them. I use it once a month and it cleans out a bunch of harmless (probably Windows) junk which has no impact anyway. The nice thing about ClamX is it doesn't run in the background, and so it doesn't use any resources until you open it for a scan.

Mac Virus/Malware FAQ

http://guides.macrumors.com/Mac_Virus/Malware_FAQ
 

Apple fanboy

macrumors Ivy Bridge
Feb 21, 2012
55,097
52,707
Behind the Lens, UK

GGJstudios

macrumors Westmere
May 16, 2008
44,539
941
Hi All,

Having a few problems with the search feature here, so I was wondering:

What Antivirus do you use?
Macs are not immune to malware, but no true viruses exist in the wild that can run on Mac OS X, and there never have been any since it was released over 12 years ago. The only malware in the wild that can affect Mac OS X is a handful of trojans, which can be easily avoided by practicing safe computing (see below). 3rd party antivirus apps are not necessary to keep a Mac malware-free, as long as a user practices safe computing, as described in the following link.
Read the What security steps should I take? section of the Mac Virus/Malware FAQ for tips on practicing safe computing.
 

beachmusic

macrumors regular
Jan 12, 2013
232
9
St. George Island
I use Webroot SecureAnywhere. Started using it on my pc's so was just a carry over. Have multiple boxes with multiple os's so easier to just use one AM.
 

=E=

macrumors regular
Nov 8, 2013
132
8
.se
I can't really say I use my antivirus on my Mac that often, but from time to time I do a full system scan, just in case. So far Ive never had anything fishy going on. I use the antivirus app called ClamXav. Its free.
 

PsykX

macrumors 68020
Sep 16, 2006
2,355
3,087
I don't use one and never had problems in 8 years and gosh do my friends like to go to fishy sites just to test my Mac to its extents.

I'm quoting myself from another thread :
It's not very well known, but OS X has a built-in AntiVirus software called Xprotect. It gets updated by Apple automatically in the background max 24 hours after a new threat has been discovered. It currently protects you against 37 threats and you don't need anything else.
 
Register on MacRumors! This sidebar will go away, and you'll see fewer ads.