Anti-Virus Software

[GeoOrtiz]

Hi All,

I'm new convert and LOVE my MacBook Air. There is something, however, that keeps me up at night. VIRUSES/SPYWARE/WORMS, etc...

I've read some posts here and what I'm getting is that an Anti-Virus program is not necessary on my Mac. I do have Norton AntiVirus 10.2. Is that enough? What about firewalls, spyware, etc...

After years on a PC, I'm addicted to these things... Please help me put my mind at ease... Do I need them? Should I upgrade to Norton Internet Security?

 

[celticpride678]

No, you do not need anti-virus on a Mac. Macs never get viruses. Anti-virus usually does bad things on a Mac (kernel panics etc.) than actually protecting the computer from viruses. I am proud to say I have been anti-viruslessness for 8 months now

 

[Andy348]

No, you do not need anti-virus on a Mac. Macs never get viruses. Anti-virus usually does bad things on a Mac (kernel panics etc.) than actually protecting the computer from viruses. I am proud to say I have been anti-viruslessness for 8 months now

I was under that same impression until I got a trojan on my Mac.

Me, being stupid, assumed that virus = every type of malware for your computer, including trojans. I was wrong. My Mac started forgetting my wifi password, running slowly, eventually programs wouldn't open and so on. I finally asked someone and they told me to get a program called Clam Xav. I downloaded that and it got rid of the trojan easily.

 

[GimmeSlack12]

You don't need any. Seriously.
A firewall is up to you, but Mac OS X has one built in to it (search for it).

 

[phas3]

its true you won't need a anti virus, the thing is no one takes the time to make a virus for MAC OS, since the big companies out there use PCs, they are the better target so us mac OS users won't have to worry

 

[GeoOrtiz]

Is ClamXAV better than Norton AntiVirus?

 

[BlueRevolution]

Is ClamXAV better than Norton AntiVirus?

In short, yes.

In long, yesssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssss.

Norton is horrid bloatware which is more likely to slow your system down than the threats it is supposedly protecting against.

 

[GGJstudios]

In short, yes.

In long, yesssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssss.

Norton is horrid bloatware which is more likely to slow your system down than the threats it is supposedly protecting against.

I hate to be picky, but I think you left out one "s"!

To the OP: As long as you're careful where you get software (not from piracy sites) and what you install, you should have no worries. Unlike Windows, you don't have to worry about viruses on Mac OS X, since none exist at this time. Trojans, on the other hand, are easily thwarted with a little common sense and careful thought before you enter your admin password.

 

[BlueRevolution]

My mistake.

Tell you what, I'll share with you the virus scanner I just wrote. It has 100% accuracy. I'll even make it open source!

tell application "System Events" to display dialog "Your Mac does not have any viruses." buttons {"Yay!"}

 

[BlueRevolution]

You're right. Particularly with the talk of trojans in this thread, it's a bad idea to run some application that was randomly posted by a faceless user on some forum somewhere. Just trying to make a point. (And while I guess a point could be made by posting a trojan for people to download, that's not exactly where I was going with it.)

You can open the application with Script Editor and see what's inside.

 

[devburke]

There aren’t any viruses for Macs, so you don’t need to worry about those. There are a few things like trojan horses, but as long as you’re using common sense you won’t get those. I’ve never even encountered one, I think they pretty much come from downloading software through torrents (since people install things they aren’t getting from reputable sources). Almost all malware is written for Windows.

That said, it’s not necessarily a bad idea to run AV software. Personally I don’t, but the biggest reason to run it is actually to protect Windows users that you network with. If you decide to (which you really don’t need to) I’d STRONGLY advise against Norton. My school made us say that we’d installed it before we could get on the dorm network. I installed it at first, and it immediately brought my MacBook to a crawl. Even back when I was on Windows, I had to reinstall XP once, and it was nice having it fresh and fast, but one of the first things I reinstalled was Norton and all of a sudden all of that fresh new Snappiness™ was gone.

 

[NoSmokingBandit]

Theres no need to run AV software on your mac all the time. OSX doesnt need constant supervision like windows. If you are worried you can download ClamXav and run a scan to make sure, but Norton is overkill and a waste of money.