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Anti Virus info for a newbie.

D

dunks.paddler

macrumors newbie
Original poster
Feb 21, 2005
6
0
Hi Folks,

First Mac arrives on Monday. Switching from PC to Powerbook. Will be connecting straight to wireless network. Having spent last few years locking down everything with antivirus, anti-spyware etc on windows machines unsure what issues are with macs. What software would you recommend? Are viruses etc such a big threat?

Cheers in advance.

Dunks.

________________
Powerbook 17" 1.67 1GB Ram 100HDD almost..... :)
 
Please do a search for "Antivirus" on the forum for discussions ad nauseum.

In the meantime, I wouldn't let any Norton Software in the same room with my Mac. Norton for the Mac is buggy - and that's being kind.

You don't need AV software - for the time being.
 
As of today, zero viruses, zero spyware. That will change, I'm sure. However, there isn't any decent AV software for the Mac (maybe Norton, but there are a lot of forum members who believe it to be bad for their Macs, and maybe Virex, but you need to join .Mac to get that - but it's included in the membership). Since there aren't any viruses, it's impossible to tell if any of the AV software works at doing anything except detecting PC viruses in email from friends, which might stop you from spreading something to other friends, but it won't infect your mac.
 
I have had my PMs (G3 for a few months, then my G5 for the rest of the time) connected to our LAN at college for the past 2 years. It stays on all day, so it is constantly "online." When I browse the net, I am not the least bit cautious about what I click on. Maybe I am just lucky, but I have never had any problems at all any type of virus, etc. My roommate (3.4 P4 Compaq) has had 2 viruses in the same amount of time, and repeated pop-ups even when not browsing the net....and he IS careful. What I am trying to say is that you don't need any type of antivirus/adware software on your Mac. It will just be unneeded overhead on your processor(s). ~Josh
 
i'm a .mac member and believe you me, i didn't sign up for Virex. I've never used it, and only run it once... just to see what would happen... heck, i think i'll run it right now... simply for my own amusement... and the result is... AH HA! just as i suspected... absolutely nothing... listen, this is how bad it is, i have a PC and ALL (i mean literally all) i use it for is posting in these forums and playing solitare... no email... no nothing... so i don't even have any anti virus software installed... that's pretty sad isn't it...
 
No need for spyware software. However you'll find alot of people on this forum way too cocky about security. A quick peruse of the Secunia website shows that Linux, BSD, Apple, etc all have weaknesses. At the moment there are 3 unpatched vulnerabilities in Mac OS X. On the plus side, they aren't rated very high as threats and there doesn't seem to be any indication that anyone has targeted them. The point is, no system is perfect and it probably wouldn't hurt for people to take system security a bit more seriously.
 
Bigheadache said:
No need for spyware software. However you'll find alot of people on this forum way too cocky about security. A quick peruse of the Secunia website shows that Linux, BSD, Apple, etc all have weaknesses. At the moment there are 3 unpatched vulnerabilities in Mac OS X. On the plus side, they aren't rated very high as threats and there doesn't seem to be any indication that anyone has targeted them. The point is, no system is perfect and it probably wouldn't hurt for people to take system security a bit more seriously.
Click to expand...

good points, i dont have any AV software, but the day there is a virus for mac i will find out right here

i do have a firewall up, both hardware & software, it wont hurt to have at least these going for you
 
A .Mac subscription includes a license to use Virex. I have .Mac, but I don't use Virex.

If you have a need for the other services that .Mac gives, like: e-mail, easy ways of sharing photos and more, online storage, home-page, easy access and syncing of data between computers, backup software and other online goodies, then it could be a good solution.
 
dunks.paddler said:
Hi Folks,

First Mac arrives on Monday. Switching from PC to Powerbook. Will be connecting straight to wireless network. Having spent last few years locking down everything with antivirus, anti-spyware etc on windows machines unsure what issues are with macs. What software would you recommend? Are viruses etc such a big threat?

Cheers in advance.

Dunks.

________________
Powerbook 17" 1.67 1GB Ram 100HDD almost..... :)
Click to expand...

There are:
A) 0 known viruses for Mac OS X
B) 2 known trojans for OS X, one that was never released into the wild and one which does not spread, requires you to input your password for it to install, and only installs a keylogger.
C) 0 known spyware for OS X.

So, no virus worries.
 
GFLPraxis said:
There are:
A) 0 known viruses for Mac OS X
B) 2 known trojans for OS X, one that was never released into the wild and one which does not spread, requires you to input your password for it to install, and only installs a keylogger.
3) 0 known spyware for OS X.

So, no virus worries.
Click to expand...

A, B, 3?
Eh? :confused:
 
The only reason to use virus protection software on platforms other than Windows is to further protect the Windows users.
 
bubbamac said:
Please do a search for "Antivirus" on the forum for discussions ad nauseum.

In the meantime, I wouldn't let any Norton Software in the same room with my Mac. Norton for the Mac is buggy - and that's being kind.

You don't need AV software - for the time being.
Click to expand...

I've used Norton for over twenty years. Only had a problem once that required a phone call to the Norton help desk.
 
GFLPraxis said:
There are:
A) 0 known viruses for Mac OS X
B) 2 known trojans for OS X, one that was never released into the wild and one which does not spread, requires you to input your password for it to install, and only installs a keylogger.
C) 0 known spyware for OS X.

So, no virus worries.
Click to expand...

Yep, all it does is install a keylogger than logs your keystrokes, nothing important... :rolleyes:

If you get that how do you remove it?
 
dotdotdot said:
Yep, all it does is install a keylogger than logs your keystrokes, nothing important... :rolleyes:

If you get that how do you remove it?
Click to expand...

I guess the question is, would you be stupid enough to enter your administrator password after double clicking on the installer and going through the required OS X -style installer pages?

If you are that stupid, then..... :rolleyes:
 
Thanks for the advice. Seems caution is advisable but problems really don't exist yet which is great.

For those who seemed so suprised I asked the question please go easy on me! Never owned or really used a mac and worked day in day out with PC's for last 8 years which kind of makes you very paranoid and security aware particularly after several major disasters with individual machines and whole networks.
 
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