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internet banking on Mac without AV?

P

Peter Franks

macrumors 68020
Original poster
Jun 9, 2011
2,118
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Hi guys, what's your take on banking online without AV. Obviously I've done it for years on Windows with AV but just wondered. I've heard conflicting arguments, obviously. And this story, all be it quite old now, about Apple suggests Mac users install antivirus software
http://news.cnet.com/8301-1009_3-10110852-83.html
and have heard about using Admin not User account instead or other way round, which I don't understand at all. I turn this on and it starts and don't have that option the way it is... but anyway. General consensus from you old Mac users?
 
I believe Windows with AV has many more possibilities to have a virus than a Mac without one. There are very, very few viruses for Mac OS X and the ones that exist cannot run without explicit user permission, you'd have to be slightly dull to have a virus run in your Mac. Generally speaking, especially in OS X, AVs just end up being an unnecessary resource hog. If anything, I would recommend you surf with AdBlock and NoScript installed, that's more than enough. And besides, online banking usually include several security measures such as https and having to click your password in a shifting 'dial pad', sessions change constantly etc.

Overall, it's pretty safe. It all comes down to the common sense of the user.
 
Thanks for your quick reply. I've been using the MBP for a few weeks and haven't done banking on it yet, but will now. And yes, AVG/Norton used to make my ex laptop take FOREVER! Thanks
AdBlock/No Script? Settings

Love the 'Stewie'!
 
Peter Franks said:
Thanks for your quick reply. I've been using the MBP for a few weeks and haven't done banking on it yet, but will now. And yes, AVG/Norton used to make my ex laptop take FOREVER! Thanks
AdBlock/No Script? Settings

Love the 'Stewie'!
Click to expand...

Haha, Stewie is awesome :D

I'll add something: someone gets viruses because they aren't taking the necessary precautions. I never had an AV run on my PC and I never got any viruses (didn't enter any odd sites, download any weird content, unsafe places, ..., avoided suspicious 50kb songs...). I just ran with NoScript which is a browser addon that blocks javascript on websites unless you give them permission to run. I don't use it on my Mac, because I haven't found any need for it. If you wish though, just google it and the default setting is that any website you visit will have javascript blocked. There is a small icon you can click on and 'allow' certain sections of the page to run. Most of the time I just had ad servers and third party scripts blocked within a site I was browsing. AdBlock I use, it's pretty much straightforward download>install>forget ads ever existed without any setting. This just contributes to an overall more enjoyable browsing experience from what I can tell
 
Brilliant, thanks for that. Very helpful

And yes Stewie is the best on the show. So much so that one of the new ones on last night had an episode without him in it, and It wasn't half as good!
 
Peter Franks said:
Hi guys, what's your take on banking online without AV. Obviously I've done it for years on Windows with AV but just wondered. I've heard conflicting arguments, obviously. And this story, all be it quite old now, about Apple suggests Mac users install antivirus software
http://news.cnet.com/8301-1009_3-10110852-83.html
Click to expand...
If you read that article and click on the link to the Apple site, you'll see the statement they're referring to has been removed. The link no longer works. Apple says antivirus may be helpful, but they don't suggest that you use it, unless you're troubleshooting a particular problem. In some cases, running antivirus has been known to cause problems with some applications and Mac OS X.

No viruses exist in the wild that can run on Mac OS X, and there never have been any, since it was released 10 years ago. The handful of trojans that exist can be easily avoided with some basic education, common sense and care in what software you install:
Peter Franks said:
and have heard about using Admin not User account instead or other way round, which I don't understand at all. I turn this on and it starts and don't have that option the way it is... but anyway. General consensus from you old Mac users?
Click to expand...
Running as standard or admin user makes no difference.
 
See! I knew you'd guys would know!

Yes, I saw the top where that had been edited and it did point to that....
 
A threat that people don't often consider is the security of their wireless networks (if they have them).

An attack on your physical network would find it relatively easy to conduct a MITM attack against you, consequently sniffing all your Internet traffic. In a case like this, all these online backing dial pads and drop down boxes for selecting letters and numbers etc are useless.

Make sure you're using WPA/WPA2 with a very strong passphrase.

I know it's unlikely to happen (unless you happen to have a particularly geeky and suspicious looking neighbour) but it's something to think about.
 
It is something I rarely think about, to be honest. The wireless network. Because I'm always on that as opposed to plugged in on the Mac
 
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