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Sophos Launches Free Anti-Virus Software for Mac OS X

I work for an IT Security reseller and we sell and support some major companies in the UK.

IMO they haven't made this AV to help anyone out. Its all about cock waving and adding to their port folio.
 
tkingart said:
What if free Antivirus software is designed to help identify security holes, and the best way to infect Mac's wide-scale?
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It couldn't help do that. I mean they only need a single copy of OS X to do that, not millions.

I've always thought virii has to be engineered under contract by companies making the "solutions" to them, there are far too many virii out there on a daily basis, to such an extent that it has to be developed on a full-time basis with some corporate involvement somewhere.
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There probably are targeted attacks from corporations and governments, but mostly it's organized crime. And no, it's not the people providing protection (except for fake antimalware products, which started becoming common a few years back).

unless there is money in making them..=]
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There is. That's also why Windows is the primary target of general malware (though that doesn't help you if someone is targeting a specific company or person-they'll attack whatever it is you're running).

Sorry but any company that feeds fear and paranoia to sell or distribute their wares, needs to brought under check somehow.
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It's not fear and paranoia. Security vulnerabilities are real, and found all the time. And of course when it comes to malware, you don't even need that, social engineering can get it on people's systems too.
 
inkswamp said:
Blah blah blah. Lack of AV software makes Macs very unattractive to business settings.



One of the barriers to integrating Macs into corporate and business environments is the lack of anti-virus tools. Yeah, you can dismiss this as FUD (and maybe there's some truth to that) but the fact remains--someday, one way or another, there will be a Mac OS X virus. I defy you to find one IT dept. in the country that wants to be caught off-guard by that. If you're going to have Macs in a business environment, the IT staff needs to know that they're protected in the event of an OS X virus outbreak. Whether any OS X viruses exist now or not and whether AV companies are trying to sell products with FUD is irrelevant in that context.

Those of you who want to see wider adoption of Macs in business environments ought to be happy to see this kind of thing showing up, regardless of whether you personally need it or not.
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Yes, a lot of organizations require Macs to run AV software to protect Windows machines from each other. The idea is to make sure that infected documents don't get forwarded through Macs from one Windows box to another.

Since I haven't been that happy with NAV, I decided to try Sophos. After a day or two, something mysteriously trashed all my account desktop settings, so, I uninstalled it. It might be a complete coincidence, or, it might be something related to Sophos-- I didn't have the time to figure it out. YMMV. But, I do suggest some deliberate testing before adopting it on a wider scale.
 
As a business point of view, a company will need to have some sort of AV installed as part of company policies weather its needed or not.
 
I use Eset NOD32 on my pc and i must say it's the best AV software in my opinion after testing many others. Once they make their AV available on mac i will get it. Or if a AV get's its way to the new mac appstore. This way i know i can simply remove it by deleting it (i hope). I just hate installers that spread stuff on my mac. It's so ...windows :)
 
Nicky G said:
I've never heard of this company -- are they reputable, does anyone know? I've heard all sorts of stories abut these types of things being spyware or some such, don't want to pollute my Mac with any of that garbage!
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Just a quick message.
I am not connected with Sophos in any way. Really.:) .....

It may be that many people outside of the UK have not heard of them.
'Largeist' firm, and well established. Lots of integrity and their Tech bullitins/blogs are quite helpful.

I've used Sophos from the 90's. It was one of the first to give a free monthly trial that worked on NT3.5.
I noticed that it's location was near me in the UK.

For me, it is particularly useful for network administrators as the deployment is graphically useful and easy. Their tech support is quick to answer by phone.

Even now as a mainly home user with 3 PC computers, Ive had 15 good experiences of incidences of asking questions/emails and dealing with samples.

I've even questioned twice in 7 years with them whether a 'true' a/v package is worthwhile on a Mac.


Don't take my word for it.
Check the last 20 years...
Interesting..

Especially some comparisons with Norton...


cheers:cool:
 
Nicky G said:
I've never heard of this company -- are they reputable, does anyone know? I've heard all sorts of stories abut these types of things being spyware or some such, don't want to pollute my Mac with any of that garbage!
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GARBAGE . . . . . NO.....

Sophos are one of the most respected AV suppliers in the world. Most home users have never heard of them though as they ONLY supply High-End AV solutions to Big businesses. The company I work for uses SOPHOS and has done for quite a few years..... the Windows client has a tiny footprint compared to McAfee, Norton / Symantec etc..... i.e. it slows your machine down FAR less than all the other solutions.

I think it is a little unfair to compare this to garbageware free PC solutions, before you call something garbage it is perhaps sensible to research it first. I run the Corporate version of Sophos on my MacPro, MacMini and MacBook Pro, as well as on my Windows Laptop and Media Centre PC. Best solution out there in my own (humble) opinion - and no, I don't work for Sophos, just use their products in a live, corporate environment on a daily basis.
 
One other viewpoint

Just another perspective for those convinced that AV software is unnecessary on Macs: Consider that you are the IT Vice President for an organization. It’s your responsibility to see that your company is safe. Safety incorporates many functions: a virus causing machines to crash, networks slowing down so badly that work stops, secure corporate data being stolen, or a piece of keystroke capturing software finding its way onto the President’s assistant’s computer.

Put yourself in this IT VP’s shoes for a bit. At the extreme, it might cause you to consider disabling every port on every computer and ask people to go back to sneaker nets with each computer scanning every file on every flash drive. Remember, it’s your career that’s at stake if the company suffers from one or more of the kinds of things mentioned above.

In fact, I’ve heard that there have been cases of healthcare professionals, including physicians, who are in prison for violating HIPAA (Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act), which every healthcare facility in the US has been dealing with for a decade.

The government as well as private industry must take cyber threats seriously.

I think the key is to find the best balance between absolute security and user convenience. AV software is one of the tools available to the people responsible to keep “the rest of us” safe.

For me personally, I run ClamAV occasionally on my home Macs, but I might look into Sophos. At the office all of the thousands of computers, including Macs, have Norton installed. There are probably other security functions about which I’m unaware, too.

Happy and safe computing.
 
Sophos or ESET ?

Should I continue to use the free Sophos or switch to the ESET paid AV?

On a iMac for business and home use.

Thanks for any insight.
 
LxHunter said:
Should I continue to use the free Sophos or switch to the ESET paid AV?

On a iMac for business and home use.

Thanks for any insight.
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I would recommend staying with Sophos. My company is in the process of purchasing Sophos for our Linux file servers on my recommendation. I tested several AV vendors and found Sophos to be best for our environment. Its extremely light on system resources and highly rated in antivirus tests.

The reason you haven't heard of Sophos is that they have been enterprise only. This is their first offering directly to consumers.

Giving the Mac version out free to consumers is very smart on their part. It gives them a larger install base which means they can find new malware faster. This then allows them to provide a better product to their enterprise customers.

Edit: Oh, I didn't see davegoody's post above that said this better until after I posted this.
 
IntelliUser said:
It's already available http://www.eset.com/home/cybersecurity-for-mac
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Cool, thanks for the info, i didnt know about this product. Although reading the feature list it sounds more like a internet security and windows virus detector then a mac AV. But maybe i'm wrong.

Anyone who has tested it and is willing to share the experience?
(maybe i take a snapshot of my OSX and give the demo a try, dont want to risk it :) )
 
Chris.L said:
You're joking right?!

They are the one of the biggest security product vendors!

I have installed this, no slow down and it doesn't get in the way.

I have it installed as I frequently share files with Windows users and don't want to be a carrier.
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+1.

My Mac-using son had a Windows trojan on his memory stick, which he uses at school-- the trojan probably loaded itself there. Its presence was identified by a Windows-using friend's malware scanner when he plugged the stick into his machine. I investigated later: scanned it with fully-up-to-date ClamXAV on my Mac. Clam didn't find anything. So, I downloaded Sophos and let it install it per its defaults. Scanned the stick again, and Sophos alerted me to the issue. It also had links to informative pages on the trojan in question. Turns out it's a Windows-only trojan; at no point were our Macs in danger. But every PC user among my son's friends was at risk from it. It was a nasty one, too, and known for stealing passwords and so forth.

So based on that one test, it seems Sophos is superior to Clam. I've noted no problem running it on my machine so far. Scanning my hard disk, for example, didn't bog the machine down much.

I think I'll keep it. Clam would not automatically scan incoming emails or other potential sources of contagion; Sophos will do so. Given there appears to be little or no performance or stability hit, it seems worthwhile.
 
I installed Sophos on our two Macs after it was released. On my Macbook Pro, there were four quarantined items, all in the Cache area, all having to do with Java. Nothing showed up on the iMac. And they weren't threats so Mac, but to Windows.

Sophos really does run quietly, and doesn't appear to hog memory. Still, I uninstalled it. There isn't a version for iOS, and I get and send a lot of files from my iPhone and iPad. I'm not really saving anyone using Windows from those threats unless I limit all activity to my Macs -- and that's a bit counter productive.
 
Is there anything it's not terribly good at? I've got some 6Gb ISOs and a couple of 40Gb Vms on my mbp...the scan gets to around 80% and then hangs. Could these be the culprits? I haven't tried excluding them yet, but thought I would canvas opinion as to the possible cause.
 
I do not use a continuously-connected Time Machine. I keep my TM backups on a drive that connects via USB and it normally resides in my fire-proof safe. TM is only active once a week (or so) when I decide to backup.

I know, all the Mac users who work their machines 24/7 are probably aghast at the idea of not letting TM have 24/7 wireless access. But maybe my technique will prevent the type of TM loss mentioned above... so long as I don't let Sophos run when my backups are going on??
 
Sounds like a virus in itself. A pointless piece of software which just hogs your RAM. Totally useless for Mac OS X.
 
Virii are coming

Lumi said:
If you think the virii and malware have been and will always be problems that only windows users will face, then you are mistaken.
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OOOoohhh I'm so scared.
Hey you can see the future, that's great.
Who's gonna win the superbowl?
We have been listening to this scarey talk for 10 years and still nothing.
Come on already, hackers, bring it on.
We falling asleep waiting for you

BTW ain't no such word as virii


And why are we so worried about passing on Windows Viruses, doesn't everyone running Windows HAVE TO run AV software. They would be nuts if they didn't. Viruses and malware have been and will always be problems that windows users will face. Just like you said.



Wiki: The plural virii, though common, is often considered to be incorrect, and based on a misunderstanding of Latin. There is no example of a plural for the word virus in Latin.
 
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I have installed the free anti-virus Sophos on my computers. It did find a Widoze malware on one of them. So, I'll keep running it, until it causes any problems or they want money :D.
 
vampyren said:
Cool, thanks for the info, i didnt know about this product. Although reading the feature list it sounds more like a internet security and windows virus detector then a mac AV. But maybe i'm wrong.

Anyone who has tested it and is willing to share the experience?
(maybe i take a snapshot of my OSX and give the demo a try, dont want to risk it :) )
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Nah, there's no firewall, no anti-spam, no credit card protection - nothing like that. It's just NOD32 for Mac. Both NOD32 and Eset Smart Security Windows licenses should work with it.
 
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weckart said:
It doesn't appear to be too good at dealing with Time Machine back ups. Tread with caution.
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The issue is if you have virus or malware in your TM .sparsebundle and you try to get rid of it by deleting the file. First of all back up with virus or malware in it doesn't sound that great so one should transfer the important files from backup and start fresh with malware free backup. However, SAV shouldn't allow user to choose delete / disinfect if the problem is found on TM backup. It seems that Sophos is taking this issue very seriously and replying to users questions in general on their forums.

Anyway, I've been running SAV in one of my Mac's since they released the free home edition and I have to say I haven't noticed any negative side effects. One big no no for me would be speed impact but in all honestly I haven't noticed anything. I do work in Final Cur Pro so any slowdown on tape captures would be easily noticed (dropped frames especially on uncompressed video).
 
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roadbloc said:
Sounds like a virus in itself. A pointless piece of software which just hogs your RAM. Totally useless for Mac OS X.
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Gee, there is nothing like sending files with virus to your PC using friends or clients. Hey, there is our awesome showreel, presentation and virus to boot. That should leave lasting impression. When the Mac OS X is hit with first major virus infection I rather be safe then sorry. Regarding use of RAM, what are you talking about? This software has extremely small footprint and only time you see it using cycles is when you start manual scan.
 
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