antivirus for macbook
My work requires that I use antivirus software. What is the best value antivirus software for MacBooks?
My work requires that I use antivirus software. What is the best value antivirus software for MacBooks?
brydierc wrote:
My work requires that I use antivirus software. What is the best value antivirus software for MacBooks?
The same as for any other Mac, but it does depend on what version of OS X you are running.
A fully up-to-date 10.6.8 or above has all the built-in antivirus it needs right now, unless your work is concerned about you passing something on to the Windows environment, in which case some additional protection is probably in order.
Sophos free for mac home users
http://www.sophos.com/en-us/products/free-tools/sophos-antivirus-for-mac-home-ed ition.aspx
Avast for Mac.
Avast for Mac.
I've noticed you are recommending that a lot, but I would not necessarily recommend avast! for Mac. avast! does have quite good coverage, in terms of malware recognized by its signature database. However, that's only a part of the story. It also has more of a problem with false positives than most other anti-virus software, in my experience, and I've seen a number of reports that it slows or destabilizes systems.
At this time, there's really no pressing need for anti-virus software on the Mac, anyway. See my Mac Malware Guide.
"Avast" is utter garbage.
The following caveats apply to XProtect:
Gatekeeper doesn't depend on a database of known malware. It has, however, the same limitations as XProtect, and in addition the following:
4. Beyond XProtect and Gatekeeper, there’s no benefit, in most cases, from any other automated protection against malware. The first and best line of defense is always your own intelligence. All known malware circulating on the Internet that affects a fully-updated installation of OS X 10.6 or later takes the form of so-called "trojan horses," which can only have an effect if the victim is duped into running them. The threat therefore amounts to a battle of wits between you and the malware attacker. If you're smarter than he thinks you are, you'll win.
That means, in practice, that you never use software that comes from an untrustworthy source. How do you know whether a source is trustworthy?
Follow these guidelines, and you’ll be practically as safe from malware as you can be.
6. Never install any commercial "anti-virus" or "Internet security" products for the Mac, as they all do more harm than good, if they do any good at all. If you need to be able to detect Windows malware in your files, use the free software ClamXav — nothing else.
7. ClamXav doesn't have these drawbacks. That doesn't mean it's entirely safe. It may report email messages that have "phishing" links in the body, or Windows malware in attachments, as infected files, and offer to delete or move them. Doing so will corrupt the Mail database. The messages should be deleted from within the Mail application.
A Windows malware attachment in email is usually easy to recognize. The file name will often be targeted at people who aren't very bright; for example:
♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥!!!!!!!H0TBABEZ4U!!!!!!!.AVI♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥.exe
ClamXav may be able to tell you which particular virus or trojan it is, but do you care? In practice, there's seldom a reason to use ClamXav unless a network administrator requires you to run an anti-virus application.
I've not had any false positives ever with either the free or the paid version in ANY personal or corporate environment with Avast. I wouldn't push it if I haven't used it reliably for over 5 years. It is also the only AV solution that DOESN'T slow down a system. Everything else on the market does, especially those from the big two McAfee or Norton... which thank god no one's pushing down the Mac throats just yet.
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SwankPeRFection wrote:
You are out of your mind. I've not had any false positives ever with either the free or the paid version in ANY personal or corporate environment with Avast. I wouldn't push it if I haven't used it reliably for over 5 years. It is also the only AV solution that DOESN'T slow down a system. Everything else on the market does, especially those from the big two McAfee or Norton... which thank god no one's pushing down the Mac throats just yet.
Whatever hallucinogenic potion you are taking it is time to stop.
You are out of your mind.
That's entirely un-called for. Do you believe that because you think you haven't had any false positives, no one else has, either?
Name-calling aside...
I have personally been contacted by numerous people who have had false positives from avast! and have turned to me for assistance. In once case, a number of ordinary .zip files were identified as "decompression bombs." (They were not.) In a number of other cases, a "bootroot.loader" file that is a normal part of Mac OS X that has been identified as a decompression bomb. One example can be found here:
https://discussions.apple.com/thread/4207679
Further, I have found that avast! frequently mis-identifies .exe files as being Mac malware, which is plainly impossible.
A high rate of detection of malware is good, but that becomes less beneficial when the false positive rate goes up. I've been studying Mac malware and Mac anti-virus software for years, and few of them have as high false positive rates as avast! does.
I don't know what version you guys are running, but I've got a network full of Macs with Avast running on them and no issues, but whatever floats your boat I guess. The fact that some of you suggest ClamAV is beyond me... now that's trash right there. Doesn't protect anything.
Well it's quite clear which one you're biased towards. Long time forum contributors say otherwise. You're certainly entitled to your opinion.
Thomas A Reed wrote:
Further, I have found that avast! frequently mis-identifies .exe files as being Mac malware, which is plainly impossible.
Actually, there is a way for an .exe file to be Mac malware, though I've only seen one back in the Classic days and I still don't know why it was packaged that way. Self-extracting compressed files (usually .zip) will have an .exc file extension and can be opened with a Mac unzipper, even though the the self-extractor won't run. The remoteness of this possiblity is probably too small to measure.
antivirus for macbook