Do macs need anti virus software?
I have heard people say that you do and other people say that you don't. Which one is it?
Austin
I have heard people say that you do and other people say that you don't. Which one is it?
Austin
OS X has got its own security systems, and antiviruses just make the computer slow, so you don't need any antivirus. See > http://www.thesafemac.com/mmg
Anyway, if you have to install an antivirus, we recommend ClamXav and Sophos, but not different antiviruses
OS X has got its own security systems, and antiviruses just make the computer slow, so you don't need any antivirus. See > http://www.thesafemac.com/mmg
Anyway, if you have to install an antivirus, we recommend ClamXav and Sophos, but not different antiviruses
How do you know if you need it?
For example, if you connect USB drives to your Mac that you are going to use with a PC. In this case, I recommend you to have an antivirus just to check the USB drive and the files you put into it, because your Mac isn't affected by viruses, but you can transfer them to other PCs
Entirely your call....
Recent malware for various platforms has been based on Adobe Flash and on Oracle Java. Consider avoiding those tools.
Consider how you use your computer.... If you tend to download stuff from sites other than the Mac App Store (and particularly if you're prone to downloading and installing stuff that you didn't go looking for), if you're loading or otherwise using torrents "incautiously", if you're loading software from sites other than the developer's own (whether torrents or any of the various "download" sites), if you automatically type your administrative password when you're prompted for it by something, if you click on links in random mail messages believing that message is really from LinkedIn or Facebook or your cellular provider or your bank or your best friend, if you're running with Adobe Flash installed and with the Oracle Java JVM WebStart plug-in enabled in your browser(s), and if you're prone to picking weak passwords, then you might want to acquire and load some anti-malware software.
Having regular backups can also a key part of recovering from a malware problem; rolling back to before the problem and then "closing the hole" is a common recovery technique.
But realize that anti-malware tools are far from a panacea, as they're inherently prone to missing new and changed and "polymorphic" malware, and any of the tools can (unintentionally) render your Mac unstable, uncooperative and otherwise flaky. In how they insert themselves into the operating system, anti-malware tools can act like the malware they're defending against, after all.
If you don't do that sort of thing, and if you treat that administrative password as the "key" to your calendar, your address book, your email, your keychain login passwords to Facebook, LinkedIn and whereever, and granting access to the rest of your environment — that's what that administrative password is, after all — and if you keep good backups, then the built-in Xprotect tool does fairly well even with the recent malware.
If you're swapping storage with Windows or presenting file shares to a network, then you can use ClamAV as that can scan files and quarantine malware for various platforms including Windows and OS X. ClamAV is installed with OS X Server, and there are ports of ClamAV available for OS X client via Fink, Homebrew and MacPorts. There's also ClamXAV around — here is the ClamXAV Mac App Store link — that other thread has an indirect pointer.
I generally run with the built-in Xprotect, with Java off or not installed, and with Flash deinstalled, and don't run nor seed torrents, and no add-on anti-malware tools. The servers I run do use ClamAV, as they tend to have file shares.
This question gets asked, so have a look around the forums for some previous discussions, opinions and options.
There are trade-offs. You know how you use your Mac. Your call.
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. When you install the Apple-supplied Java runtime (but not the Oracle runtime), yet another layer of protection is added: a "Malware Removal Tool" (MRT). MRT runs automatically in the background when you log in. It seems to check for, and potentially remove, malware that may have been installed via a Java exploit. Like XProtect, MRT is presumably effective against known attacks, but not against unknown attacks. There is no user interface to MRT.
5. Beyond XProtect, Gatekeeper, and MRT, 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?
7. 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.
8. 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.
so i installed mountain lion and it is really slow. haven't done any maintence for 3 years so what do i need to do to for maintence?
what do i need to do to for maintence?
That's really a separate topic, and in the future would be better addressed on a new topic with a more appropriate title to get the most eyes looking at it. However, to answer the question, you don't really need to do anything as far as maintenance is concerned. See The myth of the dirty Mac.
As to the reasons for your system to be slow, we can't do more than guess without more details. Try my Mac Performance Guide as a starting point.
personaly i hate your articles! they are so biased! but some good things in there anyway so i guess they were ok articles!
Bias: a particular tendency or inclination, especially one that prevents unprejudcied consideration of a question; prejudice.
How exactly are Thomas' articles biased? I personally don't always agree with him...but that's not the same thing. To paraphrase a certain spanish duelist - I don't think that word means what you think it means.
Sorry poor choice of words!
personaly i hate your articles! they are so biased! but some good things in there anyway so i guess they were ok articles!
I'm not sure how to respond to that. It would be far better if you could be clear about what exactly you don't like about them. You claim they're biased, but I'm not sure I understand that criticism. I try very hard to avoid bias. I'm also not quite sure how you could hate them but think they're okay...?
If you'd like to have a constructive conversation about this, I would be glad to talk to you about it. Feel free to e-mail me privately.
Do macs need anti virus software?