MacScan - Do you like it - Is it needed?

[bigsky]

Hello!

I was looking at possibly installing MacScan but wanted to see what others thought first.
I am relatively new to Macs. On my PCs I've had antivirus software before but one thing I disliked about any antivirus software was it always seemed to reduce my performance...everything ran slower because the stupid software was always running. I hated it.

Does MacScan work constantly??
Has anyone noticed it slowing their machines down?
Is it possible to say load it- run a scan - and then remove it completely off the computer?

I am curious to know what you all think.

Thanks!!

And on a related subject - while surfing on Safari I was doing a Google search - I clicked on a link and BAM - I got this popup (what appeared to be a Safari popup) that said my computer had been infected. It really didn't give me the choice of cancel out of the popup box and so when I clicked on Continue it basically flashed up another popup box or window that appeared to show a bunch of files and graphics and it even made it look like it was doing a system scan of infected files. I panicked and closed it down immediately. It was a safari window. Was this just a scareware deal or is it possible by somehow clicking on a link I got a bunch of bad stuff downloaded??

Thanks for the two-parter (the first part is inspired by the second part!)

 

[Ivan P]

Don't install any type of antivirus on your Mac. It slows it down and is totally not needed.

And about that poput, don't worry about it. Virutally every single virus created was made for Windows computers, and wouldn't affect a Mac at all.

 

[Neil321]

1, nope not needed, no viruses in the wild ( at present ), if your experiencing slowdowns try running something like onyx,checking your HDD isn't too full etc

2, scareware most probably, ''you must scan/buy this" even if something did manage to download ( unlikely ) it wont harm your Mac as it wont understand it

Basically what ^ said

 

[OneBlueFire]

Congratulations on your new Mac.

Your Mac is not susceptible to most of the unlimited number of viruses on the net. A VirusScan software for a Mac is usually just a way for Symantec to earn money off us.

You can use your Mac comfortably without fear of getting infected.

And, Mac OS allows no change to its root folders without an administrator password. Nothing will happen unless you allow it to happen.

 

[madog]

And on a related subject - while surfing on Safari I was doing a Google search - I clicked on a link and BAM - I got this popup (what appeared to be a Safari popup) that said my computer had been infected. It really didn't give me the choice of cancel out of the popup box and so when I clicked on Continue it basically flashed up another popup box or window that appeared to show a bunch of files and graphics and it even made it look like it was doing a system scan of infected files. I panicked and closed it down immediately. It was a safari window. Was this just a scareware deal or is it possible by somehow clicking on a link I got a bunch of bad stuff downloaded??

Thanks for the two-parter (the first part is inspired by the second part!)

In the nine years of Mac OS X there have been many vulnerabilities found yet no virus has ever been in the wild for any of them. As for popups, everyone is susceptible to those, yet you must be smarter than the popup. Generally, they will look like Windows dialog boxes and not the standard Mac OS dialog. Either way, do not fall for the Continue or Cancel button as they will both try to lead you to trouble; simply click the red close button instead to close the window. As a result of you clicking one of those buttons, something may have downloaded to your Mac; however, nothing can be installed on your Mac without your explicit say so through the use of an administrator password. Chances are extremely slim that if it did download something it is even a Mac compatible file.

Any virus program for Mac will generally find and display Windows viruses which will only truly be beneficial to you if you are networked with many Windows computers and want to act as a barrier between them and downloaded files. Otherwise, there are a small handful of trojans out there for Mac which so far are only contained within strange and random downloads such as a video codec for an adult site, or from pirated applications had through the likes of bittorrent. After that they require user intervention in order to be harmful, simply downloading them will do you no harm, as you must install it.

Otherwise, any virus infected file will otherwise be an .exe that you can't use with Mac OS anyway, or possibly a media file that will ultimately show up as corrupt or unplayable on your Mac and not harm it in any way.

Furthermore, yes, virus apps do ultimately slow down any machine be it for Windows or Mac as they will routinely be constantly running in the background and/or try to interface with your system in such a way that it causes it take up resources (on a more powerful machine you may not notice it, but it is affecting it as with any other similar app). Consequently, virus apps for Macs add another security flaw to your system as the most serious and harmful of viruses will actually "hop along" the servers which hold the software to automatically update itself which, if exploited, could potentially hurt your system even more so than any standard virus or malware.