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Antivirus: avast! or ClamXav?

M

marty1990

macrumors 6502
Original poster
Nov 25, 2011
418
25
England
I'm currently using VirusBarrier as my AV on my MacBook Pro, but the licence is soon to expire and I don't know if it's worth renewing it. I'd like to have an AV on my Mac for peace of mid, but not sure which I should get? Ideally free, but you can say otherwise. I used to use avast! on my Windows machine and it was great and just found out they do an OS X version of it too, but at the same time I've heard that ClamXav is a good AV, also.

Which one should I go for? Any others I should consider?
 
marty1990 said:
I'm currently using VirusBarrier as my AV on my MacBook Pro, but the licence is soon to expire and I don't know if it's worth renewing it. I'd like to have an AV on my Mac for peace of mid, but not sure which I should get? Ideally free, but you can say otherwise. I used to use avast! on my Windows machine and it was great and just found out they do an OS X version of it too, but at the same time I've heard that ClamXav is a good AV, also.

Which one should I go for? Any others I should consider?
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I've always used ClamXav and never had any problems, although with OS X you'll probably be fine with any anti virus software.
 
ClamXav here. Don't care what anyone says about not needing protection. I have it protecting my download, utorrent, and mail directories. Since I notice no performance issues, why not have protection against the unknown?
 
Mr. McMac said:
ClamXav here. Don't care what anyone says about not needing protection. I have it protecting my download, utorrent, and mail directories. Since I notice no performance issues, why not have protection against the unknown?
Click to expand...

And the first OS X virus in the wild your antivirus will do you no good. Due to the fact that it won't know what to look for since there has been none to reference.
 
Oui said:
And the first OS X virus in the wild your antivirus will do you no good. Due to the fact that it won't know what to look for since there has been none to reference.
Click to expand...

So follow this scenario.

New virus/malware is in the wild on Monday.

You get it on your computer (infected) Wednesday.

Friday the AV vendor updates their definitions and you get a popup telling you you are infected.

This would seem like a worthwhile thing for some users.
 
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.

As for an average Mac user encountering a zero-day virus before it's well-publicized and virus definitions are in place, the chances are so ridiculously remote, you're more likely to be hit by a water balloon while being struck by lightning . . . twice . . . while standing in your bathrobe . . . on Mars!

If you want to run antivirus on your Mac, that's your choice, and ClamXav works fine, but if you practice safe computing, you don't need it.
 
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Bitdefender Virus Scanner I think its all I need. I run it every once and a while for fun.
 
Mr. McMac said:
ClamXav here. Don't care what anyone says about not needing protection. I have it protecting my download, utorrent, and mail directories. Since I notice no performance issues, why not have protection against the unknown?
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Of course there are no performance issues, since there's really nothing for the software to look for. :rolleyes:
 
Mr. McMac said:
*

I don't. Doesn't mean OSX is immune to getting one in the future. Listen, do whatever you want. I personally don't care what anyone thinks.
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No one is saying OS X is immune to malware. No OS is. The truth is that there is no malware in the wild that can't be successfully avoided by practicing safe computing, which provides more protection than any antivirus app. If you want to run an antivirus app, that's your choice, but it is not necessary to keep a Mac malware-free.
Tlamaki said:
pastrychef said:
Buried in what sand? Do you know of a virus that exists?
Click to expand...
http://www.digitaltrends.com/computing/kaspersky-cyber-security-threats-2013/
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Not a single virus listed there, since no OS X virus has ever existed in the wild. See above.
 
GGJstudios said:
No one is saying OS X is immune to malware. No OS is. The truth is that there is no malware in the wild that can't be successfully avoided by practicing safe computing, which provides more protection than any antivirus app. If you want to run an antivirus app, that's your choice, but it is not necessary to keep a Mac malware-free.

Not a single virus listed there, since no OS X virus has ever existed in the wild. See above.
Click to expand...

http://thenextweb.com/insider/2013/03/21/new-os-x-trojan-injects-ads-into-pages-browsed-by-chrome-firefox-and-safari-even-targets-apples-website/

I remember Inqtana-A also...
 
Tlamaki said:

http://thenextweb.com/insider/2013/03/21/new-os-x-trojan-injects-ads-into-pages-browsed-by-chrome-firefox-and-safari-even-targets-apples-website/
Click to expand...
You may as well save yourself a lot of trouble copying and pasting links. You won't find a single OS X virus in the wild. What you're posting are articles about Trojans, which can easily be avoided by practicing safe computing. Read post #8 in this thread, including the links, to educate yourself on the types of malware and the current malware environment for OS X.
 
GGJstudios said:
No one is saying OS X is immune to malware. No OS is. The truth is that there is no malware in the wild that can't be successfully avoided by practicing safe computing, which provides more protection than any antivirus app. If you want to run an antivirus app, that's your choice, but it is not necessary to keep a Mac malware-free.

Not a single virus listed there, since no OS X virus has ever existed in the wild. See above.
Click to expand...

Yet. Doesn't mean there will never be one that will bypass OSX's built in security. I like to play it safe. What's wrong with that?
 
Mr. McMac said:
Yet. Doesn't mean there will never be one that will bypass OSX's built in security. I like to play it safe. What's wrong with that?
Click to expand...
As I said, you can run antivirus if you want, but it won't assure you protection against future threats that don't yet exist, as an AV app doesn't know how to protect your Mac against unknown malware. Historically, those who practice safe computing alone have been better protected than those who used an antivirus app alone.
 
GGJstudios said:
As I said, you can run antivirus if you want, but it won't assure you protection against future threats that don't yet exist, as an AV app doesn't know how to protect your Mac against unknown malware. Historically, those who practice safe computing alone have been better protected than those who used an antivirus app alone.
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My last virus was when I first got into computers in the early 90's. Still, besides being safe, I still like that added sense of security that an anti virus gives me. real or not. it makes me feel better having it.
 
GGJstudios said:
You may as well save yourself a lot of trouble copying and pasting links. You won't find a single OS X virus in the wild. What you're posting are articles about Trojans, which can easily be avoided by practicing safe computing. Read post #8 in this thread, including the links, to educate yourself on the types of malware and the current malware environment for OS X.
Click to expand...

The point was that even if there's only worms and trojans that doesn't mean there won't be a virus in the wild, the first guy I quoted said there aren't virus in the wild, I replied with an article that to me makes a lot of sense, more and more people buy macs now, sooner or later there will be virus for macs, the second article, i admit it, my bad, i didn't think you guys could tell the difference between a virus and a trojan reading the replies here but the point is that there's malware for osx already, if this guy wants to be protected that's ok, if you know how AV work for windows you must know that it is very very difficult to the user to catch the virus the day it is released, so if most of AV databases updates daily, you will be protected against that new virus, unless you have very bad luck and infect your mac the day the virus is released
 
Tlamaki said:
The point was that even if there's only worms and trojans that doesn't mean there won't be a virus in the wild, the first guy I quoted said there aren't virus in the wild, I replied with an article that to me makes a lot of sense, more and more people buy macs now, sooner or later there will be virus for macs, the second article, i admit it, my bad, i didn't think you guys could tell the difference between a virus and a trojan reading the replies here but the point is that there's malware for osx already, if this guy wants to be protected that's ok, if you know how AV work for windows you must know that it is very very difficult to the user to catch the virus the day it is released, so if most of AV databases updates daily, you will be protected against that new virus, unless you have very bad luck and infect your mac the day the virus is released
Click to expand...

Amen! At least one person agrees with me. Thanks!
 
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