Anti Virus for Mavericks

About Virus Barrier please go to Apple Store and take a look at users comments.

Bnick1953 wrote:

About Virus Barrier please go to Apple Store and take a look at users comments.

Wow, that should be reliable! 😉

Pete

Bnick1953 wrote:

https://discussions.apple.com/docs/DOC-3341

🙂

Extract from the link:

and our resident expert Thomas A Reed now recommends either VirusBarrier Express or Dr. Web Light, both from the App Store. They're both free, and since they're from Apple’s App Store, they can't destabilize the system. Thomas’s excellent guidance on this subject can be read here: www.thesafemac.com/mmg

About Virus Barrier please go to Apple Store and take a look at users comments.

To be perfectly blunt, the people posting the poor reviews of VirusBarrier Express on the App Store know less than crap about it. They're so uninformed it's actually comical. Keep in mind that I have a substantial collection of Mac malware and have tested most Mac anti-virus apps, so I have factual data to back up which ones perform and which ones don't:

http://www.thesafemac.com/mac-anti-virus-testing-01-2013/

Let's consider some examples of those reviews. One guy says that it's "scant on virus definitions," and that iAntivirus is the best. That's just positively libelous when you look at my test results. Especially the part about iAntivirus, which is really not good.

How about the guy who says it doesn't find "trojan viruses" and that McAfee does better? Once again, see my testing... McAfee's worse than iAntivirus. Plus, anyone who gives advice on this topic while using the term "trojan viruses" should immediately be discounted, since there's no such thing. That's like telling people visiting India to beware of mosquito cobras... sticking two words together doesn't mean the combination makes sense.

How about the guy saying updating of malware signatures is inconsistent... because there hadn't been any updates for 13 days, between May 17 and May 30 of 2012. Sure, that's bad in the Windows world... in the Mac world, new malware doesn't occur very often. There probably wasn't any need to update the signatures during that time! There was a bunch of new malware that appeared during Feb - April of 2012, but none in May. (Assuming, of course, that he actually knew how to update the signatures and didn't have some other software blocking the connection, which could also be contributing factors for all we know.)

Similarly, the guy who says the definitions can't be updated clearly had something wrong, probably something like Little Snitch blocking the connection attempt, because the definitions update extremely quickly and easily.

Regarding some of the crash reports... well, software can always crash. I can't say that's impossible, though I haven't ever had VBE crash on me. I do have to say it seems unlikely that an App Store app - any App Store app - could cause a "black screen of death." Most likely there were some other factors at play there.

In other words... please don't post advice about this sort of stuff if you really don't have the facts.

Thanks Thomas.

So, at the end of the day, following results of your test, we are back to my first suggestion: avast free is the best one.

Did I understand well?

Have a nice day.

Nicolò

Bnick1953 wrote:

Thanks Thomas.

So, at the end of the day, following results of your test, we are back to my first suggestion: avast free is the best one.

Did I understand well?

Have a nice day.

Nicolò

*Hands another shovel to Bnick to dig deeper hole* lol

Pete

You go, Thomas.

Matthew_Milbourne wrote:

Sophos works great in OSX Mavricks, does not bog down the system at all.

FWIW, I have been using Sophos on my Macs since it was first released some years ago. It has never "bogged down" the system or caused any other problems I'm aware of -- even when I let it run during OS updates.

It gets among the best scores for detection & update frequency of malware definitions & detects both Windows & OS X threats. The current version is code-signed with an Apple developer ID so Gate Keeper won't object to installing it if you have that (default) option set in System Preferences > Security. It has both "on demand" & (to me much more important) "on access" scanners & supports custom scans of selected folders. It even supports OS X technologies like Services & Applescript, & has a well designed menu bar status item (not a menu extra that Apple says third party developers should not use).

Since it is totally free (& there isn't even a more expensive upgrade version Sophos will try to sell you unless you are a commercial enterprise) I think it is hard to beat if you are looking for A-V software for a Mac for non-commercial use.

If you are running only Mac OSX then NO Virus Protection is needed. Only when you have Windows installed is a virus protection needed.

So, at the end of the day, following results of your test, we are back to my first suggestion: avast free is the best one.

Not necessarily. Testing raw detections is only part of evaluating an anti-virus app. You've also got to consider whether it's going to crash your computer, kill its performance, how it's going to function, whether it has a problem with false positives, etc.

When it comes to Avast, there are all kinds of anecdotal reports of it causing problems. But you can't rely on stuff like that too much, since you don't actually know what's going on and how much the person doing the complaining knows about diagnosing such problems. I have talked to one very experienced person on these forums who has had Avast installed for years with no issues, but again, that's only one data point.

More concerning, in my eyes, is the fact that I've had to talk a lot of people "down from the ledge" as they were preparing to erase their hard drive or delete important system files following false positives from Avast. But, I haven't had any of those reports in a while, so perhaps that issue has been fixed.

I have some specific recommendations for anti-virus software in my Mac Malware Guide, which has been referred to already in this discussion. Those recommendations are based on the level of protection that I believe is necessary and what is, in my experience, reliable.

+1

I use Sophos on all my Macs. It constantly catches PC viruses attached to eMails as they come in on my 10.5.8 machine. Been running it on 10.6.8 and 10.9 and there is no sign or feeling that it's there. It just works. Apple says we don't need anything . . . yet. Once interest peaks, things will emerge.

Just my 2 cents here:

1. I used to use Sophos, because it was free, seemed to work well, and had a nice interface. I stopped using it after it started slowing down my computer. It started to use very large percentages of my CPU. And I don't think it ever found a virus or malware. I am careful about what I download and from who. I also don't think that bank presidents in Nigeria need my help with large sums of cash. I don't open attachments from people I don't know.
2. I really dislike Windows and I have no need for it. Thus I have no need for antivirus software. I have one windows-native app and I run it in Wine. There are a lot of other alternatives to running Windows as well.
3. I understand the concept that I don't want to spread viruses around when I send things to people who, sadly, still languish in the Windows world; the thing is, almost all of the people I communicate with are Applepeople anyway. And the windows people I communicate with are smart enough to have their own virus protection. Bottom line is I don't want to sacrifice my Mac's performance for something that has such minimal benefit.

Thanks to all the people contributed to that interesting discussion.

By the way I just unistalled Avast and I will not use any antivirus anymore on my mac. You convinced me I do not need it because I do not use any Windows application on my Mac, I do not open any email coming from people I do not know and I do not watch ***** movies.

Ciao,

Nicolò

Bnick1953 wrote:

Thanks to all the people contributed to that interesting discussion.

By the way I just unistalled Avast and I will not use any antivirus anymore on my mac. You convinced me I do not need it because I do not use any Windows application on my Mac, I do not open any email coming from people I do not know and I do not watch ***** movies.

Ciao,

Nicolò

Wonderful. Now we can all sleep peacefully knowing this. 😁

Pete

You convinced me I do not need it

It's not that simple... If you decide you don't want to use anti-virus software, that's a perfectly legitimate choice on a mac, but please be sure to do your homework and understand what is necessary to ensure you remain secure. You can't just pretend Mac malware doesn't exist, as some of the folks responding here would like you to do. Well, statistically, you probably could do just that and still be fine... but would you rather play the odds or understand how to beat them?