Best Internet security for the Mac?

for your best security - keep your OS up to date and install updates when they become available.

you can also download and install clamx av and scan your macbook once in a while.

other than that, you're fine and enjoy your new macbook

See my Mac Malware Guide.

Most threats at this point are very rare, and almost all current threats require Java. If you don't install Java, or disable it in your web browser, then you're safe from most current stuff. The rest is fairly easy to avoid if you're wary, but you do have to keep an eye on Mac news sites for breaking news on new threats. Follow my blog and I'll keep you informed as quickly as possible when new threats appear.

OS X versions 10.6.7 and later have built-in detection of known Mac malware in downloaded files. The recognition database is automatically updated once a day; however, you shouldn't rely on it, because the attackers are always at least a day ahead of the defenders. In most cases, there’s no benefit from any other automated protection against malware.

The most effective defense against malware is your own intelligence. All known malware on the Internet that affects a fully-updated installation of OS X 10.6 or later takes the form of trojans, which can only work if the victim is duped into running them. If you're smarter than the malware attacker thinks you are, you won't be duped. That means, primarily, that you never install software from an untrustworthy source. How do you know a source is untrustworthy?

1. Any website that prompts you to install a “codec,” “plug-in,” or “certificate” that comes from that same site, or an unknown site, merely in order to use the site, is untrustworthy.
2. A web operator who tells you that you have a “virus,” or that anything else is wrong with your computer, or that you have won a prize in a contest you never entered, is trying to commit a crime with you as the victim.
3. “Cracked” copies of commercial software downloaded from a bittorrent are likely to be infected.
4. Software with a corporate brand, such as Adobe Flash Player, must be downloaded directly from the developer’s website. No intermediary is acceptable.

Disable Java (not JavaScript) in your web browser(s). Few websites have Java content nowadays, so you won’t be missing much. This setting is mandatory in OS X 10.5.8 or earlier, because Java in those versions has bugs that make it unsafe to use on the Internet. Those bugs will probably never be fixed, because those older operating systems are no longer being maintained by Apple. Upgrade to a newer version of OS X as soon as you can.

Follow these guidelines, and you’ll be as safe from malware as you can reasonably be.

Never install any commercial "anti-virus" products for the Mac, as they all do more harm than good. If you need to be able to detect Windows malware in your files, use the free software ClamXav — nothing else.

Any Memory Resident anti virus such as McAfee and Norton are actually better left for notebook PCs.

For your Macbook - they do more harm than good - just search the threads and you'll see a few with issues when using Norton or McAfee.

Your best defense is to make sure your OS has the latest updates installed.

As for ClamX AV, every one will say this is good or that is good or this one is bad or that one is better.

You can also download and install Sophos if you feel like you really need one.

Good luck

It does more harm than good by causing system instability, wasting CPU and I/O bandwidth, and otherwise killing productivity with spurious alerts, with no offsetting benefit to security.

Engine wrote:

I looked into ClamXav, but after reading the reviews they say that it does not do live scanning.

I'd be interested in reading those reviews myself if you can point me in the right direction.

If you are talking about the version available from the AppStore, that is correct. But the full version available from ClamXav's web site includes the Sentry process that is capable of watching selected directories (folders) for any new files.

I use ClamXav Sentry on my Downloads folder. No problem with it...

Clinton

Can you please explain to me how commercial virus scan does more harm than good? I always thought that Macafee, and Norton were halfway decent.

That is one of the extreme viewpoints you'll find regarding anti-virus software in these forums. And while it's true that some commercial anti-virus software is crap (like Avast, which has been known to falsely identify normal system files as malware - I just helped someone with that very problem a couple days ago, in fact), not all is.

Note that Norton has an extremely bad reputation in these forums, though I have no personal experience with it, so I cannot say how honestly that reputation is earned. McAfee is not one I have heard much about. In any case, though, if you're going to install AV software, there's no point in buying anything when there are high-quality free tools available, like ClamXav and Sophos.

Actually the best internet security is to use the 4 to 5 inches between your 2 ears.

If we compare Sophos vs ClamXav it shows that Sophos protects mac against virus, trojan, worm and e-mail but ClamXav protects only against viruses. Look at the following website: http://antivirus-software.findthebest.com/compare/140-141/2012-Sophos-Antivirus- for-Mac-vs-2012-ClamXav

How people recommend ClamXav more then Sophos?

Last year my mac was infected and I installed F-secure trial version and it saved me from every kinds of viruses, trojan...etc.

After trial I installed Intego Internet Security for Mac which crashed my mac totally. I also tried in other macs but the same problem occured. I contacted Intego but nothing helped.

People who recommend Intego is joking and you'll destroy your mac definitively. Some other experts recommend Intego higher then other but it is a really joke. In my opinion Intego means viruses, trojans and worms.

I was forced to uninstall Intego and after that I tried MacAfee Internet Security for Mac. It was good but not better then F-secure.

After trial it was impossible to uninstall MacAffee. I contacted MacAfee support and after two weeks I got the reply and they recommended me to format my mac which was the only way to get rid of MacAffee.

If someone tries MacAfee trial version but remember to uninstall it 1 or 2 days before trial period.

Nowadays I use Sophos which works well, no crashing and it doesn't slow Mac computers.

According to Swedish website: Avast (free) and Avira(free) saved Mac 100%.

http://blogg.tkj.se/bast-antivirus-for-mac-os-x-2012/

Anyone who tested both ClamXav and Sophos, any comments?

If we compare Sophos vs ClamXav it shows that Sophos protects mac against virus, trojan, worm and e-mail but ClamXav protects only against viruses.

I'm not sure where you read that, but it's not true. Both Sophos and ClamXav protect against all kinds of malware.

Anyone who tested both ClamXav and Sophos, any comments?

Back in November, I tested 16 different anti-virus programs, including those. See:

Mac anti-virus detection rates

I have repeated the tests on a larger scale, and will probably be posting the results on Monday. I'll tell you, though, that Sophos caught 97% of the malware I threw at it and ClamXav caught 79%.

Of course, no anti-virus software is really necessary at this time. All current Mac malware can be handled by a properly-updated system (the latest version of 10.6, 10.7 or 10.8) with Java disabled in the web browser (the default at this time). For more information, see my Mac Malware Guide.

S.M.S wrote:

If we compare Sophos vs ClamXav it shows that Sophos protects mac against virus, trojan, worm and e-mail but ClamXav protects only against viruses. Look at the following website: http://antivirus-software.findthebest.com/compare/140-141/2012-Sophos-Antivirus- for-Mac-vs-2012-ClamXav

That part of the comparison is blatantly false. The types of malware protected against are identical. From http://www.clamav.net/ "ClamAV is an open source (GPL) antivirus engine designed for detecting Trojans, viruses, malware and other malicious threats. It is the de facto standard for mail gateway scanning." ClamAV is the scan engine used by ClamXav. E-mail scanning is an optional preference for ClamXav.

The ClamAV database currently contains signatures for 651,659 Trojans (61 are OS X Trojans) and 25,498 Worms (none of which are OS X). I'm sure there are others that are mislabeled. There are 111 unique signatures for OS X.

How people recommend ClamXav more then Sophos?

Only one that I know of and it's not me.

According to Swedish website: Avast (free) and Avira(free) saved Mac 100%. http://blogg.tkj.se/bast-antivirus-for-mac-os-x-2012/

The site they reference, AV-Comparatives, has been shown to accept varying amounts of money from vendors to have their software tested, so I don't put a lot of faith in the results.

Anyone who tested both ClamXav and Sophos, any comments?

Thomas Reed is in the process of conducting a follow-up test and expect results will be available shortly. While you are waiting read the results of his initial testing at Mac anti-virus detection rates and note in the "Updates" section that ClamXav is now able to detect all 21 of his malware samples.

Full disclosure: I do uncompensated tech support on the ClamXav Forum.

I've read Thomas Reed's "Mac Malware Guide" which he recommended and it was really good and important details. 🙂

Thank you MadMacs0 and Mr. Thomas A Reed.

According to other experts in Europe that ClamXav sometimes crashes and slows Mac during scanning but in my opinion it works well which I installed in my another Macbook pro.

S.M.S wrote:

According to other experts in Europe that ClamXav sometimes crashes and slows Mac during scanning

If you have links to the writings of these experts I'd like to take a look at them. It's rare to see a crashing problem reported in the Forum, though there were some related issues with Sentry a few months back.

I'm sure that it does slow some Macs during scanning, I haven't found an A-V scanner yet that doesn't slow mine, which is why I never conduct a manual or scheduled scan when I have something better to do on the computer. I have also found that with the use ClamXavSentry it helps to limit the number of directories being watched to those where new files are likely to show up. On access scanners find it almost impossible to keep up with all the temporary files written and immediately deleted by the System and some apps to scratch folders. There is almost no chance of those being a threat so scanning them is a waste of CPU cycles.