Best Anti-Virus Software

NONE!

There are NO viruses that affect a Mac running OS X - NONE.

Barry

Barry - wrong - there ARE known pieces of malware that run on Macs. That said, it is *extremely rare* to get one on your machine unless you're doing something extremely risky.

But it's highly unlikely you'll ever need antimalware for Mac. I don't use one and I've never gotten anything.

If you really feel like you need one, there's a home edition of Sophos for free if you want to check it out:

http://bit.ly/oMZaMW

Malware isn't a virus. See Reed's virus guide.

d6d24r94 wrote:

Barry - wrong - there ARE known pieces of malware that run on Macs.

If Barry is wrong, why did you have to change his words from "virus" to "pieces of malware?"

Couldn't you have just said, "there ARE known viruses that run on Macs."

If Barry is wrong, why did you have to change his words from "virus" to "pieces of malware?"

That's just semantics. Important semantics, yes... a virus is much more dangerous than a trojan. However, the average user does not understand such semantics and should be given the entire story, not just told "There are no viruses." Someone who becomes overconfident because "Macs don't get viruses" is going to end up with a trojan because they weren't careful.

Steve, as baltwo said, check out my guide, and then if you're still interested in anti-virus software, get a copy of ClamXav. That's the only AV software I recommend.

In reply to your question.... Intego Virus Barrier 6 is a good one since it scans for Siganture based viruses/malware as well as anomalies. BTW, Intego is a British company. 🙂

Thomas A Reed wrote:

If Barry is wrong, why did you have to change his words from "virus" to "pieces of malware?"

That's just semantics.

No, it's words. And words mean stuff. They don't mean what you'd like them to mean or what you think others might get confused about. They mean what they mean.

If you don't know the difference between a Virus and a Trojan, or any other piece of malware, yes, you certainly will download and install something bad because you have chosen to be ignorant.

d6d24r94 knew that there was a difference, otherwise he would not have changed Barry's words. Barry's words meant a specific thing. d6d24r94 had to change those words to change the specific meaning Barry intended.

If you don't know the difference between a Virus and a Trojan, or any other piece of malware, yes, you certainly will download and install something bad because you have chosen to be ignorant.

It's pretty rude to say that someone who doesn't understand the difference between a trojan and a virus has "chosen to be ignorant." That is a loaded word, and you are criticizing people for not knowing something that they don't know they should know. If you believe someone needs knowledge, educate them, don't ridicule them. How do Barry's choice of words help to educate anyone?

Barry's words aren't the problem here. Barry's words are absolutely correct. d6d24r94's words were specifically chosen to call out Barry.

Baltwo already pointed everyone down the correct "learning" path. There was no point in me saying it again.

This thread was pointed down a bunny trail of getting some learning out of it until you jumped in and diverted it. The essential point was made, but you weren't the object of the lesson.

And, no, it doesn't bother me that I chose a "loaded" word. I chose the word on purpose. It wasn't "semantics."

Steve

what's certain ?

if clamxav says you don't have it, and easyfind (ignore Finder for this) or Find any File (another good app) cannot locate files with the suspect names - then surely it's likley that you just have a download for a Flash 11 beta, I can't explain why there's no 'where from' showing. Your downloads list, arranged by 'date added' may help with knowing where to look in browser history.

or upload the dmg to http://virscan.org/

Did you just download it or did you install it? This MacFixIt article has pictures comparing the Trojan installer to the real Flash installer.

I should have asked for "Anti-Malware" software.

Don't worry about it, nobody calls it "Anti-Malware" software. You called it what everyone, including the vendors of that software, calls it. There are always folks here who will give you half answers and try to confuse you with pointless arguments about your wording. You should not apologize.

My present concern is that it seems fairly certain that I have downloaded the new trojan contained in a claimed download of the Flash player (although I cannot find its file "~/Library/Preferences/Preferences.dylib" on my machine, using Spotlight and EasyFind, or in a Finder window for "~/Library/Preferences/Preferences.dylib".

You may have downloaded it, if you saw a page like the one described at Flashback.A seen in action!*, but that does not mean it's installed. Did you also run the installer and proceed all the way through installation? If so, you're probably infected. I'm not sure that ClamXav detects this yet, though hopefully it will soon. I submitted a copy of this trojan's installer to them earlier this morning.

I'm unclear on how you have looked for the Preferences.dylib file, and whether you have used EasyFind correctly. Just to make sure, in the Terminal, paste the following command:

ls -al ~/Library/Preferences/*.dylib

If you are infected, you'll see a line listing the malicious file. If not, you'll see an error saying "No such file or directory."

* Disclaimer: links to my pages may give me compensation, and should not be taken as endorsement of my services by Apple.

If you peruse this forum you'll find intego is not well regarded, use ClamAVX, it's the 'least bad' option

Russa wrote:

In reply to your question.... Intego Virus Barrier 6 is a good one since it scans for Siganture based viruses/malware as well as anomalies. BTW, Intego is a British company. 🙂

So what does it being a British company prove. It is still worthless.

Allan