Got a tip for us?
Let us know
Become a MacRumors Supporter for $50/year with no ads, ability to filter front page stories, and private forums.
Virus Guard for Mac
- Thread starter sajaz
- Start date
- Sort by reaction score
No, not really
Use common sense, practice safe computing and know why you are using your administrator password
Use common sense, practice safe computing and know why you are using your administrator password
You don't need any antivirus software to protect your Mac from malware. No viruses exist in the wild that can run on Mac OS X, and there never have been any, since it was released 10 years ago. The handful of trojans that exist can be easily avoided with some basic education, common sense and care in what software you install:
NO, I suggest you to NEVER install a virus guard, even on windows. Just be sure about what you're doing before actually doing it.
That's a bit naive, Windows can actually be hit by viruses over the internet and/or intranet without the user instigating any operation. Universities have been a cesspool for these things for years.
Last edited:
I think this a reckless and naive thing to say, maybe on mac you might be safe with common sense however on windows it is always better to be safe than sorry, e.g. microsoft security essentials isa good antivirus
It's not misleading or incorrect. Using common sense and practicing safe computing (such as not installing software that you didn't intentionally research and download from a reputable site) will avoid the malware you mentioned, whether the admin password is required or not.
No antivirus can protect users from stupid actions, such as entering your credit card information for the installation of some unknown software that asked you to install it.
That's why they come to a forum like this: to learn how to be more computer literate. That's why we give them the information that we do, to better equip them to practice safe, responsible computing.
Of course you would suggest that... you want to sell your software. And it's NOT the safest way. When MacDefender first showed up, no antivirus app identified it as a threat, including yours. Those who practiced safe computing were completely protected. The safest way to easily avoid malware is to educate yourself, use common sense, and practice safe computing.... NOT to depend on 3rd party software to protect you.
Last edited:
Considering that the poster works for Intego the post promotes their product. This hardly qualifies as sound advice. I think the post borders on advertising a product.
A post from someone with vested interest in the product is dubious in my opinion.
I've used a Mac for 5 years and never installed a "virus scanner".
No virus scanner or "trojan watcher" can protect against user stupidity.
I had them on Windows cause there were enough threats and in the corporate world it was required. Still I never got a windows virus or trojan.
The variants of MACDefender that installed without password authentication ran with only user level privileges. But, users still had to run and click through an installer to install these variants of the malware.
The variants of MACDefender that required password authentication only did so to be installed for all users. These variants didn't install a rootkit despite requiring authentication.
Regardless of a password being required or not, all variants of MACDefender relied on tricking users to enter credit card numbers into the MACDefender GUI to collect sensitive user data.
Here's your answer:
And if that Mac user had Intego's antivirus installed, it wouldn't have made any difference, because it didn't recognize MacDefender as a threat when it was first encountered. However, any Mac user exercising safe computing practices would not have been affected at all.