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Anti Malware

This is a constant subject in this forum. Short answer - unless you frequent naughty sites or the dark web, or open every email attachment without thinking, you really don't need any sort of antivirus or other stuff that a WinDoze user must have.
 
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I got MacKeeper, and I can't get rid of it. I ran Anti-Malware but the MacKeeper still keeps bothering me. It shows up at the right corner of my screen offering to scan my computer.
 
Bending Pixels said:
This is a constant subject in this forum. Short answer - unless you frequent naughty sites or the dark web, or open every email attachment without thinking, you really don't need any sort of antivirus or other stuff that a WinDoze user must have.
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Sadly, not true. Try Divx codec for a start, and speedtest.net was peddling MacKeeper for a few years too.

I needed the advice of Thomas Reed's blog to get rid of the DivX installer's conduit install on a client's machine.

http://www.thesafemac.com/arg-conduit/

Since Thomas Reed has now moved development over to MalwareBytes, that's my recommendation for scanning and removal of adware and malware from a Mac running 10.7 or later.
 
Bending Pixels said:
This is a constant subject in this forum. Short answer - unless you frequent naughty sites or the dark web, or open every email attachment without thinking, you really don't need any sort of antivirus or other stuff that a WinDoze user must have.
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I wouldn't say this is true in the case of MacKeeper. Many sites carry the ads, and it's often pushed as bundled software as well. Even MacRumors is fighting to get rid of MacKeeper's presence.
 
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Pardon the hijack but this is right in line with my questions. I'm new to macs and have a couple migration related questions if you guys could help get me up and running. I'm setting up my Mac now and I've got an external HD that I will be connecting to my mac. I'm planning on transferring the contents of the external to my Mac HD, hopefully reformatting the external HD to Mac format, then transferring content back to said external. Now this external was hooked up to an old Windows XP3 and I've run Malwarebytes on it through Windows. Do I need to scan the external for malware once more when I connect it to the Mac? If so what should I use?

Also, what is this mackeeper exactly? and should I not visit speediest.net anymore (I gone there a lot lately)? :D
 
MacKeeper is still just "scareware" that you should choose to ignore :D
They just want your money. (the software, despite what the site would say, is not free)

You won't need to scan your files from your external drive.

I run Malwarebytes on my Mac every few weeks. It seldom finds anything. I just use it to feel good :D

speediest.net looks a little dodgy, like a targeted shopping site.
 
Windows viruses or programs won't run on the mac unless you have something like parallels or fusion. The ones that attack the browsers are the ones to watch.
 
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Okay. I'm just weary of the files on the external. I need them as they are important however the Windows machine it was attached to was infected a countless number of times over the years. Im just afraid of some rogue file with embedded malware of some sort. regardless of whether or not it would affect the Mac, I'd like to not carry over any nasty remnants from the PC to limit any potential future shenanigans. If running it through Malwarebytes is the safest bet then I'll do that once more. Appreciate the help.

PS: Is transfering contents of external to Mac, then format external for Mac, then transfer contents back a sure plan or is there a better way?

DeltaMac said:
speediest.net looks a little dodgy, like a targeted shopping site.
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Yeah no kidding. Their ios app is great just dont know why they choose to make such a poor web app. Anyone know something else just as good?
 
If it's just files then there is no worry. The biggest worry might be microsoft office viruses, not sure that they can affect mac office form windows office.

What kind of files are you worried about transferring?
 
vexorg said:
If it's just files then there is no worry. The biggest worry might be microsoft office viruses, not sure that they can affect mac office form windows office.

What kind of files are you worried about transferring?
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Mainly files (word docs, PDFs, etc), pictures (jpg, png, bmp,), videos (torrents (they scan clean with Malwarebytes…)), installer exe's for Microsoft Office and other windows programs (most not official).
 
Gave up on Mac anti-malware back around 96', when Disinfectant went into its final incarnation.
Haven't used or needed the stuff since, and that's through over 10 iterations of the Mac OS on a dozen or more Macs.
 
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Got it. Thanks everyone.

Last question, whats the recommended format for reformatting my external to? And if i've gotta ever transfer files between a Mac and PC, any advice?
 
If you want both to read and write, then you need to keep it simple, like FAT/FAT32/exFAT. The mac can't write to NTFS, and the PC can read OS X formatted drives. (ok they can, but not natively)
 
vexorg said:
If you want both to read and write, then you need to keep it simple, like FAT/FAT32/exFAT. The mac can't write to NTFS, and the PC can read OS X formatted drives. (ok they can, but not natively)
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Hmm okay. Isnt FAT limited to 4GB file size though? I Would definitely want it to be optimized for Mac first and foremost as that will be majority interaction.

In line with this I guess, will I run into any potential issues when transfering NTFS data to OS X Extended (Journaled)?
 
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