Q: what is the best antivirus for my mac?

I used to have iAntivirus developed by Norton in my Macbook Pro because it is the most rated.. I don't think I need any antivirus software for my computer for a while. Antivirus software sometimes is the root cause of broken things that happens on your computer. Anyway, it's worth for those who are very new to computer.

TitleWavess9 

Intego, your product is probably no good at all.......but your graphic is priceless!  It's the saddest virus I've ever seen!  I think this sad little virus is expressing what all viruses feel about not being able to infect macs!

Hmmm,........ I think thats a blatant rip-off of the character "Plankton" from Spongebob 

Scare tactics re: Anti-Virus is a cycle of fear 95% based off another OS

however the Boy Scout "always be prepared" is a lifetime motto more people should heed.

thuansoldier wrote:

 

I used to have iAntivirus developed by Norton in my Macbook Pro because it is the most rated..

Actually it was developed by PCTools before Symantec bought them out and was certainly not hightly rated at the time.  See Beware iAntivirus!.

I don't think I need any antivirus software for my computer for a while. Antivirus software sometimes is the root cause of broken things that happens on your computer. Anyway, it's worth for those who are very new to computer.

Good advise.

Mr. Galt,

Excellent reply...and with only minor changes could apply to anyone using any computer: Windows, Linux, Unix, Mac.

My only (very small) quibble would be that many people who block pop-up windows are unaware a number of legitimate sites require pop-ups be unblocked in order to use certain features...so I would add the usual caveat about un-blocking pop-ups temporarily if you need to do something genuinely important, and if the site simply will not work properly otherwise (book flight, pay for something you bought, etc)...or else use a different browser for those sites that require pop-ups, etc.

Other than that, I have one question: How much of a royalty would I have to pay you in order to make your post part of the how-tos I give all new clients?

Cheers,

KC

One brief comment - MS defender is not very good. Avira has a free version and is highly ranked.  AVG is another possible.

Hi everybody,

I have tried most of the Mac AntiVirus before. I have 5 Mac computers in my small comapny and three other Macs for family, with different Antivirus working on each. Beleive me once they had those AntiVirus software they became unstable. Now I got my new MacBook Pro. It is without an AntiVirus on its OSX part, and Avira on its Parallel Windows part, I can feel its stability.

I think those AntiVirus are just a game, people around me saying that viruses are already developed by them and AntiVirus vendors are mentioning BACKDOOR security holes when they talk about their competitors, so they accuse each other. So I don't trust them.

Mac OSX seems to be safe in terms of applications, but data files might be infected (I mean documents and similars). In general we are safe into the OSX.

Just an opinion.

Thanks.

I trust them for one thing and that is getting rich off gullible Mac Users who think they are there to help them.

Allan

I think those AntiVirus are just a game, people around me saying that viruses are already developed by them

Most anti-virus companies are very responsible. They absolutely do not develop viruses just to sell their software... there's no need to do that when hackers take care of the job for them. That's just an old - and very silly - myth from back in the 80s, when most people didn't actually believe in computer viruses, and falsely accused the discoverer of the first one of writing it.

The fact is, there is Mac malware out there, and despite all the protections in Mac OS X, I still see people getting infected now and then. Consider the following, for example:

https://discussions.apple.com/thread/5875133?start=0&tstart=0

That is a verified infection by Wirenet (aka NetWeird).

Now, most Mac anti-virus software suffers from one or more of a number of problems... instability, performance problems, poor detections, etc. But that doesn't make the company behind it malicious, it just means they're spending more time and money on their Windows products, which make up the core of their business.

So, all in all, you need to know how to protect yourself, and if you choose to use anti-virus software, you need to be very careful about which one you choose.

I installed Avast on a new iMac and within 48 hours it caught an incoming Trojan from a website that was considered safe.  Just a data point.

TomM8 wrote:

 

I installed Avast on a new iMac and within 48 hours it caught an incoming Trojan from a website that was considered safe.  Just a data point.

Without the name of that Trojan, I am forced to guess that it was Windows only and was probably found in your browser cache where it could not possibly have harmed your computer.

It's possible to download an OS X Trojan from a website, but all the ones we currently know about will be prevented from opening or doing any damage by built-in protection as long as it's active, fully up-to-date, Snow Leopard and above.

Avast! is also well known for false positives, even finding malware on a brand new OS X installation that had no other files or network connection at the time. The file was part of OS X. It has a very high detection rate, but you are well advised to check every file to make certain it's actually infected. Another data point.

Thanks MadMacs0. I appreciate your insight.

TomM8 wrote:

 

I installed Avast on a new iMac and within 48 hours it caught an incoming Trojan from a website that was considered safe.  Just a data point.

You meant that it claimed to do so.

Name of the Trojan please

Sorry, the name of the Trojan is lost.  If it happens again I'll come back and post more.

Please do,

I find that Sophos 9 significantly slowed down Safari in Maverick. I removed it but I am not sure what to replace it with.