Anti Virus Software
What is the best Antivirus software that doesn't have a monthly subscription like most of them do.
Thanks!
iMac, Mac OS X (10.7.5), IMAC 2.8 GHZ Intel Core 2 Duo
What is the best Antivirus software that doesn't have a monthly subscription like most of them do.
Thanks!
iMac, Mac OS X (10.7.5), IMAC 2.8 GHZ Intel Core 2 Duo
None at all!
If you say no to all of these:
Do you use peer2peer software?
Do you open anything other than PDF or ZIP or images from attachments?
Do you have Windows installed on your Mac?
Do you share attachments of Word documents with colleagues?
And if you can just ignore requests to update your computer's Java or Acrobat, then you don't need Anti-Virus.
Only get Java and Acrobat from Oracle and Adobe directly.
Macs may have trojan horses, but only for those who practice unsafe computing.
That's it.
None at all!
If you say no to all of these:
Do you use peer2peer software?
Do you open anything other than PDF or ZIP or images from attachments?
Do you have Windows installed on your Mac?
Do you share attachments of Word documents with colleagues?
And if you can just ignore requests to update your computer's Java or Acrobat, then you don't need Anti-Virus.
Only get Java and Acrobat from Oracle and Adobe directly.
Macs may have trojan horses, but only for those who practice unsafe computing.
That's it.
So to add to a brody's post in a nutshell you DO NOT NEED ANTIVIRUS SOFTWARE if you practice safe computing practices.
Good Luck
Don
We are a design firm and yes we use VMware with windows installed. Yes we share word documents with various clients for language translations etc.
Thanks!
If you find this comment too long or too technical, read only sections 5, 6, and 10.
2. All versions of OS X since 10.6.7 have been able to detect known Mac malware in downloaded files, and to block insecure web plugins. This feature is transparent to the user, but internally Apple calls it "XProtect." The malware recognition database is automatically checked for updates once a day; however, you shouldn't rely on it, because the attackers are always at least a day ahead of the defenders.
The following caveats apply to XProtect:
3. Starting with OS X 10.7.5, there has been a second layer of built-in malware protection, designated " Gatekeeper" by Apple. By default, applications and Installer packages downloaded from the network will only run if they're digitally signed by a developer with a certificate issued by Apple. Software certified in this way hasn't necessarily been tested by Apple, but you can be reasonably sure that it hasn't been modified by anyone other than the developer. His identity is known to Apple, so he could be held legally responsible if he distributed malware. That may not mean much if the developer lives in a country with a weak legal system (see below.)
Gatekeeper doesn't depend on a database of known malware. It has, however, the same limitations as XProtect, and in addition the following:
For the reasons given above, App Store products, and other applications recognized by Gatekeeper as signed, are safer than others, but they can't be considered absolutely safe. "Sandboxed" applications may prompt for access to private data, such as your contacts, or for access to the network. Think before granting that access. Sandboxing security is based on user input. Never click through any request for authorization without thinking.
4. Starting with OS X 10.8.3, a third layer of protection has been added: a "Malware Removal Tool" (MRT). MRT runs automatically in the background when you update the OS. It checks for, and removes, malware that may have evaded the other protections via a Java exploit (see below.) MRT also runs when you install or update the Apple-supplied Java runtime (but not the Oracle runtime.) Like XProtect, MRT is effective against known threats, but not against unknown ones. It notifies you if it finds malware, but otherwise there's no user interface to MRT.
Conditional or unsolicited offers from strangers
Software that is plainly illegal or does something illegal
Software from an untrustworthy source
Unexpected events
I don't say that leaving the safe harbor just once will necessarily result in disaster, but making a habit of it will weaken your defenses against malware attack. Any of the above scenarios should, at the very least, make you uncomfortable.
6. Java on the Web ( not to be confused with JavaScript, to which it's not related, despite the similarity of the names) is a weak point in the security of any system. Java is, among other things, a platform for running complex applications in a web page, on the client. That was always a bad idea, and Java's developers have proven themselves incapable of implementing it without also creating a portal for malware to enter. Past Java exploits are the closest thing there has ever been to a Windows-style virus affecting OS X. Merely loading a page with malicious Java content could be harmful.
Fortunately, client-side Java on the Web is obsolete and mostly extinct. Only a few outmoded sites still use it. Try to hasten the process of extinction by avoiding those sites, if you have a choice. Forget about playing games or other non-essential uses of Java.
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 one of the free security apps in the Mac App Store — nothing else.
8. An anti-malware product from the App Store, such as "ClamXav," has the same drawback as the commercial suites of being always out of date, but it does not inject code into the operating system. That doesn't mean it's entirely harmless. 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
The ClamXav developer won't try to "upsell" you to a paid version of the product. Other developers may do that. Don't be upsold. For one thing, you should not pay to protect Windows users from the consequences of their choice of computing platform. For another, a paid upgrade from a free app will probably have all the disadvantages mentioned in section 7.
Since you use VMWare having active anti-virus such as McAfee within VMWare is probably best and to do all your e-mail reception on the windows side. That way you can detect viruses that would impact your VMWare environment, and if you use Word for the Mac, the Macro viruses would be detected before they came to the Mac OS X side of things.
YAK 54 wrote:
We are a design firm and yes we use VMware with windows installed. Yes we share word documents with various clients for language translations etc.
Even if you decide to use an OS X anti-malware product, don't rely on it to protect your VM. You need to install a good Windows based product there, in any case.
Thanks guys for all your advice!
Anti Virus Software