What is Mac's preferred Antivirus tool?

[Ron_Tomkins]

Hi

I've recently made a professional decision which means that from now on I will depend on my computer to work. That means I need my computer to be 100% clean and protected from internet garbage. I know that everyone says that Macs never get viruses, but let me tell you something gentlemen: not too long ago I got a virus. That's right, a virus. So there. I had Avast Antivirus which detected the virus, yet was unable to delete it (but it did put it in quarantine). And recently my Avast trial expired and now I have no antivirus. So I need something and I need it fast. But not just something. I need the thing.

So what is Mac's most recommended antivirus/antispyware tool?

(In case you need to know, I have a MacBook Pro)

[Kevin_Lowe]

Sounds implausible. What was the name of this alleged virus and where was it?

There is no preferred antivirus tool for Macs because there are no Mac viruses in the wild, last time I checked. Zero.

Windows idiots, often security people who should know better, occasionally try to pull a fast one by pointing to proof-of-concept attacks, or known security holes, particularly ones that work over LANs or with physical access to a machine, and pretending that they are the same thing as a replicating virus in the wild.

If someone with access to your machine or your LAN is determined to get at your machine they might be able to do it, or they might not. "Internet garbage" is not a factor however.

[BenBurch]

Well, there is Virex, and it will find all the windows viruses in things you download so you then do not pass them on to your windows systems, and also finds word macro viruses and visual basic viruses associated with Microsoft office...

But no, there are no native mac viruses at all!

Back in the days of system 3 there were a handful. Even got given a machine that was infected by one (nVir) but none in the last 15 years.

[Bob Blaylock]

Although there are no known viruses in the wild that affect MacOS X, it is possible for a Macintosh to act as a “carrier” for viruses that target other operating systems.

I have ClamXAV (http://www.clamxav.com/) installed on my Macintosh, and set to automatically scan anything that comes in to the directories that I use to receive downloads, email attachments, and anywhere else that a virus-laden file might wind up.

[jimtron]

I don't know about antivirus apps for Mac, but be sure you are regularly backing up. I hear horror stories quite often about people losing important data (papers, email, whatever) because of a virus, crashed hard drive, stolen computer, etc. If you have Leopard installed, Time Machine is incredibly easy to use--you'll just need an external hard drive.

[van_dutch]

aside from the no virus comments, virex by mcafee is good. I have used it on multiple machines. It may just be called VirusScan, like their Windows one, at this point. I have only used the enterprise edition, gotten through school and work so I have no idea about pricing.

[Ian Osborne]

iAntiVirus (http://www.iantivirus.com). It's like the PC's AVG, in that it's free for home and home office users, but enterprise users pay a fee (not sure what's stopping you installing it at work anyway, though). It's extremely versatile, able to scan your entire Mac and also offer real-time protection. It's automatically updated, and runs quietly in the background without getting in the way.

It's Intel-only, which is a pain, but if you have a MacBook Pro you're okay.

[BenBurch]

I don't know about antivirus apps for Mac, but be sure you are regularly backing up. I hear horror stories quite often about people losing important data (papers, email, whatever) because of a virus, crashed hard drive, stolen computer, etc. If you have Leopard installed, Time Machine is incredibly easy to use--you'll just need an external hard drive.

Note that Time Machine, being just another mounted volume, can be lost to a virus should one ever appear. You need both. An OFFLINE backup is also a really, really good idea. Carbon Copy Cloner can make bootable external backups for you.

[Ron_Tomkins]

Sounds implausible. What was the name of this alleged virus and where was it?

Wish I could remember but I don't. I'm not sure if it was some sort of Trojan. The fact is, Avast Identified it as a virus.

[Ron_Tomkins]

I don't know about antivirus apps for Mac, but be sure you are regularly backing up. I hear horror stories quite often about people losing important data (papers, email, whatever) because of a virus, crashed hard drive, stolen computer, etc. If you have Leopard installed, Time Machine is incredibly easy to use--you'll just need an external hard drive.

Great. Now I need an external hard drive.



Don't mind me. I complain a lot. But in the end I do it.:)

[moopet]

Wish I could remember but I don't. I'm not sure if it was some sort of Trojan. The fact is, Avast Identified it as a virus.

What I assume happened is that Avast identified it as a Windows virus. Because that's what it'll be scanning for. Whether it was or not isn't important, it could have been a false positive.

Unless it was a macro virus written for some dodgy wordprocecssor or something it couldn't affect your mac anyway :)

[jimtron]

Great. Now I need an external hard drive.



Don't mind me. I complain a lot. But in the end I do it.:)

Well, at a minimum I would recommend backing up important documents to a Web based email account, and/or onto optical disks. Imagine which files you'd miss if your hard drive crashes or your Macbook gets stolen or whatever. And as was mentioned, it is a great idea to store important data in more than one location. The nice thing about digital stuff is that it's easy to have redundancy.