I have had my MacBook over 2 years now and decided to do a full scan tonight using iAntiVirus just to see what it would find. The results are 0 , nothing, and nada.
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Sophos Launches Free Anti-Virus Software for Mac OS X
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well I installed this on both of my MacBook Airs, One is my Wife's. It found 0 on mine, but found 4 trojans on my wife's, all associated with Java. It pointed them out to me and when I found the file it pointed out, the software deleted the file for me. Not bad for free. Thanks Sophos, didn't know those were there.
Then get Apple to release security updates for longer than 24 months.
The availability of these products is good news for anybody who is getting tired of paying Steve.
Java on any platform is able to download payloads for Windows. Most likely Windows malware that the AV software found. Java can usually be turned off fairly easily in client side apps, as in Safari, if you don't use it. Beyond turning Java off, user knowledge can keep you safe from trojans. For example, don't provide password and authenticate for installers that you have not explicitly double clicked; then the payload is not able to install itself in your system. Java applets should not require password authentication so that is a good sign of a malicious payload. You can clean it out manually via finder or on demand scan using ClamXav.
There's a very good reason why an AV company would want to give away a personal use version of software in order to sell more corporate licenses. The reason is that it increases your footprint for detecting virii and malware earlier and it helps you improve your detection and cleaning technology more quickly helping you to better protect your paying corporate customers, this can only improve your reputation with the coirporates and allow you to charge a premium for your product.
At present the Mac has few threats, those that are in the wild at the moment generally rely on social engineering as opposed to vulnerabilities in the software, however, what we have to remember is that there have been a number of vulernabilities in iOS that have been exploited in order to jailbreak iOS devices (these vulnerabilities in many cases are also common to OSX as they spring from the same codebase), these exploits do provide the ability to gain root access to OSX and hence provide an avenue to install software (without the users knowledge) that could be used to cause the theft or destruction of data.
The Mac has previously enjoyed a certain amount of security through obscurity, but the number of exploited vulnerabilities in iOS and OSX is increasing as the installed base of those devices is continuing to grow. The iOS and OSX platforms are becoming more attractive to attackers, particularly as many Mac users do not install AV software and do not understand the threats that exist, this makes the Mac platform easy pickings.
If you think the virii and malware have been and will always be problems that only windows users will face, then you are mistaken.
At present the Mac has few threats, those that are in the wild at the moment generally rely on social engineering as opposed to vulnerabilities in the software, however, what we have to remember is that there have been a number of vulernabilities in iOS that have been exploited in order to jailbreak iOS devices (these vulnerabilities in many cases are also common to OSX as they spring from the same codebase), these exploits do provide the ability to gain root access to OSX and hence provide an avenue to install software (without the users knowledge) that could be used to cause the theft or destruction of data.
The Mac has previously enjoyed a certain amount of security through obscurity, but the number of exploited vulnerabilities in iOS and OSX is increasing as the installed base of those devices is continuing to grow. The iOS and OSX platforms are becoming more attractive to attackers, particularly as many Mac users do not install AV software and do not understand the threats that exist, this makes the Mac platform easy pickings.
If you think the virii and malware have been and will always be problems that only windows users will face, then you are mistaken.
That's because you need to get out more. (Actually, it's because they target business customers, not home users. Lots of large organizations--my old college, for example--site-license their software.)
Thanks for the morning laugh.
Anyway, what I think people aren't realizing is this: while there aren't any in-the-wild viruses for OS X, you always have the risk of unknowingly carrying Windows viruses, which could be important if you have PCs at home or work or otherwise interact with some 90% of the computing world.
I don't understand why so many people are rating this negative.
iOS is 32bit. Many security mitigations in 32bit processes can often be defeated via bruteforce. Snow Leopard is mostly 64bit. 64bit processes have more security mitigations and have not yet been exploited. So, that is why many iOS exploits do not show up in OS X.
:d
The next phases of Sopho's agenda:
1) create more "viruses" and get as much media hype as possible. This will ensure a larger demand of their free product.
2) once a significant number of users are registered and using their free product, force them to update their application--for new virus protection. this new update will lock them into a 30-day trial mode
users will have to pay $60 per year in order to stay protected.
I'm not worried at all honestly. I'm just even happier to be running a unix-based operating system
The next phases of Sopho's agenda:
1) create more "viruses" and get as much media hype as possible. This will ensure a larger demand of their free product.
2) once a significant number of users are registered and using their free product, force them to update their application--for new virus protection. this new update will lock them into a 30-day trial mode
users will have to pay $60 per year in order to stay protected.I'm not worried at all honestly. I'm just even happier to be running a unix-based operating system
i love this
I used to have iantivirus, but got rid of it because it would grab onto 150% or some ridiculous number of the processor and never let go. Sophos, on the other hand, is lightweight and unobtrusive.
I used to have iantivirus, but got rid of it because it would grab onto 150% or some ridiculous number of the processor and never let go. Sophos, on the other hand, is lightweight and unobtrusive.
As soon as I saw your post I thought this file was like 1GB. If 60MB DMG is a lot, I'm guessing you don't have iWorks or Office installed.
Sophos is terrible on Windows; why would anyone want to install that garbage on their Mac?
LOL, whatever you say chief!
Huh. This is really cool, but I'm not familiar with the brand...don't know if it's good, or even legitimate for that matter.
Still, it's cool to see someone finally offer it free. Windows has had multiple choices for a few years, so this is good news for OS X fans!
Still, it's cool to see someone finally offer it free. Windows has had multiple choices for a few years, so this is good news for OS X fans!
Sophos provides solutions mainly for large corporations. Its as legitimate as it can get. Whats good about is the small foot print their software takes. So its all business and no nonsense "turbo meters" etc. like with Intego Virus Barrier. Honestly I have no idea why they are giving away Home version for free. The business solutions are expensive. Then again if you really want to sell to corporations it makes sense to give people free home versions to gain presence and goodwill. After all those free Home version using people work in corporations...
Sophos is terrible on Windows; why would anyone want to install that garbage on their Mac?
From this comment I can tell you have had absolute NO EXPERIENCE with the product.
We have had it in our company for 10 years and it's absolutely non-intrusive and hassle free.
Please don't generate noise if you don't have any relevant experience.
Patrick