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Anti-Virus question
- Thread starter Kane84
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You don't really need an AV software on a Mac, neverteheless to be on the safe side you can try this: https://www.malwarebytes.org/antimalware/mac/
Better pray for protection against unicorns at the same time, just to play safe.
"'Malware' is an umbrella term used to refer to a variety of forms of hostile or intrusive software,[3] including computer viruses, worms, trojan horses, ransomware, spyware, adware, scareware, and other malicious programs." (Wikipedia).
I second malwarebytes - it's what apple told met install when I had an adware problem. Other than that, you don't need anti virus on a mac 
For now, there are not any Mac viruses, but some people like to run an AV solution on their Mac to prevent them inadvertently spreading any Windows viruses (like in an email attachment for example). ClamXAV is not free, but is fairly popular among Mac users since it can be configure to only scan on demand.
Sophos antivirus is free. It seems to catch the stuff in emails from folks with windows machines.
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.There is actually a very good reason NOT to install AntiVirus applications on a Mac. Doing so currently has no protective effect over the multiple layers of existing security built-in, and can actually introduce vulnerabilities, performance problems, and stability issues that were not present in the first place.
I used to have Sophis installed. It didn't protect ME from viruses/malware, but on one occasion it detected a virus embedded in a PowerPoint template someone sent as an attachment and warned me. That prevented me from sending it to pc users who may have gotten infected. I would have been an immune carrier, so it was a case of being a good citizen. But the potential issues for my Mac running Sophos were not worth it so I uninstalled it.
If you really want to play safe on a Mac or PC stay away from cracked software, attachments from people you don't know or on OS X it ASKS for a password to install something when you didn't want it.
Also think about getting an OpenDNS.com account and replace your router DNS to OpenDNS IPs free account. If you open an account you can block well known Trojan hosting sites and so much more! This way you can block any nefarious Web sites or never block certain sites, your choice.
There has been a rise in people showing up in emergency rooms after being stabbed by unicorn horns. It seems that virgins are having much more protection than before./s
Seriously, I've had Macs since 2005 and currently have 3 running and never had either a virus or malware. I think a lot depends on practicing safe computing and having a good bootable backup disk just in case. I have 1 mac mini that had a corrupted boot disk, but my backup was OK, so I just copied the backup to the boot and all was well. From years of watching these forums I think there have been far more issues with people who have disk problems, including the HDD simply going kaput, AND they have no backup than people with viruses.
