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Best Antivirus For Mac Osx

I was a bit uneasy when I bought my macbook white in May 08. I was previously a Windows user. And as a Windows user, I have been brought up to always install an anti-virus scanner and a firewall, no matter what. When I asked the store person to recommend a Mac OS anti-virus scanner, he stared at me blankly and said that I did not need one. After a while now, I have gotten used to the idea that as long as I am practice safe computing and do not carelessly install any software or attachments, I will be okay. I simply love Mac OS. No more waiting for new virus updates to be downloaded, no needless periodic scanning which my Windows computer used to forcefully impose on me. You cannot imagine how good this feels!
 
Interesting thread. I really don't see a need to run any AV at the moment if you're using OS X. But, if you do want to, I'd suggest ClamXav. It's free, really lightweight, you have a choice whether or not to run it in the background, it's transparent, and effective. It's kept up-to-date as well with daily virus definition updates.
 
AlexH said:
Interesting thread. I really don't see a need to run any AV at the moment if you're using OS X. But, if you do want to, I'd suggest ClamXav. It's free, really lightweight, you have a choice whether or not to run it in the background, it's transparent, and effective. It's kept up-to-date as well with daily virus definition updates.
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my problems have seemed to be with safari being slow and sluggish. some what of a slowdown but just on its own part.

would you suspect that clamxav would at least try and find something what the matter could be. would clam also be able to wheedle out whether its an actual virus or a Trojan set in.
 
I honestly don't think you would need a Anti-Virus. If you don't download anything from shady websites, and download from known major website you should be fine. Watch out for Spam Bots though, I ran into a Mac Virus posted by a Spam Bot, it was a .dmg file that I didn't install. :rolleyes:
 
samuraix98 said:
my problems have seemed to be with safari being slow and sluggish. some what of a slowdown but just on its own part.

would you suspect that clamxav would at least try and find something what the matter could be. would clam also be able to wheedle out whether its an actual virus or a Trojan set in.
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ClamXav has found a few trojans on the family mac. I did some research before deleting them, and they appeared to affect Windows, not OS X. However, it couldn't hurt to download the clam and give it a shot!

If Safari is slowing down, you might have something else going on. I doubt it's a virus.
 
AlexH said:
ClamXav has found a few trojans on the family mac. I did some research before deleting them, and they appeared to affect Windows, not OS X. However, it couldn't hurt to download the clam and give it a shot!

If Safari is slowing down, you might have something else going on. I doubt it's a virus.
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well thanks, ill defainitly give it a try. see what shows up. if not ill have to find another route to come to some conclusions.

acataully thank you everyone who has shown me the curtosy to explain this little issue ive been having.

im slowly coming in to my own on my macbook. the programs i know how to use, but the insides is what gives me trouble.
 
So, is it possible to get a virus or anything bad from using google to search the net for various things? I've seen some pretty shady links showing up in my google searches. I haven't clicked on any of the links, but google kind of shows you a few lines as sort of a preview in your results, I didn't know if you could pick up something bad this way, or if you would actually have to go the the website to do any harm.

Sorry for the noob question...;)
 
det2004 said:
So, is it possible to get a virus or anything bad from using google to search the net for various things? I've seen some pretty shady links showing up in my google searches. I haven't clicked on any of the links, but google kind of shows you a few lines as sort of a preview in your results, I didn't know if you could pick up something bad this way, or if you would actually have to go the the website to do any harm.

Sorry for the noob question...;)
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No, you can't get a virus from searching the web. On a Mac, you can't get a virus. Period. There are no viruses in the wild that run on a Mac.
 
danny_w said:
This is really the only reason currently to run anti-virus software on a Mac. That may very well change in the future if Mac gets enough market share to be worth it for the virus writers.
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No. Do you not remember that Mac OS 9 had less than half of OS X's market share and had LOADS of viruses? It's not marketshare. It's OS X. :D
 
ClamX AV. It's free and does the job just fine.

As others have said, this is only really if you'd rather not pass around windows viruses to PC using friends/colleagues/whatever..
 
My contacts are complaining that "I" am sending them strange links (when offline). Could that be a virus?
 
I have been using a mac for two years thats right two whole years and no viruses lol... no but seriously I dont, and I have been using a pc for 16 years and still use protection.
 
Stormbringer said:
My contacts are complaining that "I" am sending them strange links (when offline). Could that be a virus?
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Are you sending them messages through facebook by any chance? I have people on my friends list that we arent as tight as we use to be sending me obvious spam messages, I dont know what OS they are running though.
 
ggjstudios said:
No, you can't get a virus from searching the web. On a Mac, you can't get a virus. Period. There are no viruses in the wild that run on a Mac.
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Please don't spread incorrect information.

There aren't any known exploits for Safari that allow the installation of software just by viewing a web page.

There are, however, viruses for Mac OS X. They're exceedingly rare, and you will most likely never see one -- but they do exist, and they are in the wild.
 
ppc750fx said:
There are, however, viruses for Mac OS X. They're exceedingly rare, and you will most likely never see one -- but they do exist, and they are in the wild.
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Such as? Please be specific. We're talking about viruses here. Not trojans, embedded macros in Word documents or other malware.
 
ppc750fx said:
Please don't spread incorrect information.

There aren't any known exploits for Safari that allow the installation of software just by viewing a web page.

There are, however, viruses for Mac OS X. They're exceedingly rare, and you will most likely never see one -- but they do exist, and they are in the wild.
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Is there a reward for catching one? If so does it need to be alive or dead?
 
EAH22 said:
Are you sending them messages through facebook by any chance? I have people on my friends list that we arent as tight as we use to be sending me obvious spam messages, I dont know what OS they are running though.
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I seem to be doing the same thing to (not my best) friends. But I don't use Facebook, just MSN and Google Talk. I have now changed my password, maybe that'll help.
 
Well Guys! At the moment I dont think that there is a problem, with OS X, but thats not to say that this will always be the same situation, I gather that most of the A/Vs on the market just scan for Windows Virus, then I heard of this one, its free, and it scans for what could be an OS X virus, I have downloaded it and been running it for a few days now. To be honest, it has not altered the running of my iMac regards to speed, its easy to setup and use. Being new it will only run on 10.5 and above.

I am very impressed so far! Its called: iAntiVirus:)
 
ppc750fx said:
Please don't spread incorrect information.

There aren't any known exploits for Safari that allow the installation of software just by viewing a web page.

There are, however, viruses for Mac OS X. They're exceedingly rare, and you will most likely never see one -- but they do exist, and they are in the wild.
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This is patently untrue. Name ONE Mac virus that exists in the wild. One!
 
ppc750fx said:
What about three? Just a few off the top of my head:
OSX/Oomp-A
OSX/RSPlug-B
OSX/Inqtana-B
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OSX/Oomp-A:
A few important points
-- This should probably be classified as a Trojan, not a virus, because it doesn't self-propagate externally (though it could arguably be called a very non-virulent virus)
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OSX/RSPlug-B:
OSX/RSPlug-B
Aliases
Trojan-Downloader.OSX.Jahlav.b
OSX_RSPLUG.A
TrojanDownloader:MacOS/Jahlav.A
OSX.RSPlug.A
HASH(0xa6d8248)
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OSX/RSPlug-B:
OSX.Inqtana.B is a worm that runs on Macintosh OS X and spreads by exploiting the Apple Mac OS X BlueTooth Directory Traversal Vulnerability (as described in Bugtraq ID 13491). Note: The worm will not operate after February 24, 2006.
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These are trojans and a worm, which require the user to install them. They are NOT viruses, which can propagate without user intervention.
 
My only experience with Mac anti-virus programs was with Norton and I wasn't happy with it, especially since it always started performing a complete disk scan every time I inserted a CD or DVD.

I currently don't run an AV program and haven't had any problems.
 
Look, I never said that the viruses that were out there posed a serious threat, just that they existed. Tallest Skil rightly pointed out that they don't pose an active threat; yes, the three I mentioned are (now) mostly harmless, but that doesn't change the fact that they exist.

Oompa can't infect _most_ things without admin access, but it can (and will) screw with stuff that the active user can run.

As for what does and does not count as a virus: that's up for debate. Oompa will attempt to propagate by itself, but it doesn't do anything unless executed.

Do you have a definition of virus, or are you just going to disclaim anything that I give as an example? ;)
 
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