Norton Internet Security for Mac 5.8 does not install with El Capitan Mac OS X 5.8

If you absolutely have to have an AntiVirus program running, try Sophos AV for Mac, which is free. That does work with El Capitan.

Unless you are in an office where such protection is required, then you don't need AV software. No matter which you install they don't work very well and will slow down the computer.

I would consider uninstalling that piece of software and consider myself fortunate. I would not allow my Macs within 100 miles of it.

Anti-virus software is useless on a Mac. It doesn't matter if it's AVG, Avira, Avast, Sophos, Norton, whatever. It's all crap. It's crap because Mac's OS comes with built-in protection called Gatekeeper that does a great job keeping garbage off your hard drive. Those programs look for Windows viruses. You're not running Windows. Even if, and this is a big if, you opened an e-mail from someone that had a Windows virus attached to it, it's not going to do any damage to your system, because again, it's a Windows virus. You're not running Windows.

People have had it drummed into their heads that if they're not using all this third-party software to "protect" their computer, they're opening themselves up to trouble. That may be true if you have a PC, but you don't have a PC. I do all my online banking on a Mac, my parents do their online banking on a Mac, and so far, everything has been copacetic. The idea that you think we don't care about your bank account because we're advising you against using superfluous software isn't fair.

robfromgreen mountain wrote:

...Several other respondents recommended going without protection. Is this a faith in Apple's Security, or hoping no one cares about my bank account?

Consider getting a phone call where the caller ID says it's from South Dakota but the caller sounds like he's calling from New Delhi and insists he's from Microsoft and wants to clean up your infected Windows computer. It's not rocket science to know what to do next. But if caller ID says it's a reputable source and sounds legit, the next step is not so clear, at least until you get a call (as I have) where the caller ID shows my name and the phone number I'm answering from so that the lesson is virtually nothing can be trusted implicitly. A problem with the Internet is that it's far more opaque with many more avenues of attack than just the individual giving credit card info or Social Security numbers over the phone when requested. And many of those avenues are "under the hood," so to speak, where most users never think to look (e.g., Verizon at least used to supply their routers with a firewall that was disabled in order, I was told by tech support, to reduce support calls). Apple has been tightening up its OS security, with SIP (System Integrity Protection) in El Capitan a prime example. But attacks very often use Social Engineering which relies on the user being duped. Or where the user is visiting an illegitimate website for illegitimate software, or a legitimate website that's been hacked or hijacked. Moreover, Apple is proactive once a vulnerability is discovered, but I believe the vulnerability in BASH, which was fixed last year, goes back to OS X 10.4.

While it's true that most viruses are Windows based, if you check out what Sophos does beyond simply scanning for viruses, you can decided if the additional features sound valuable to you.

I think it's a matter of personal choice and the degree of caution one is willing to exercise while connected to the Internet, as well as how lucky one feels while surfing. If the AV software is neither intrusive nor destructive, a valid question could be "why not?"

No, it's because OS X has its own built-in AV protection that is updated in the background as needed and with each new OS X update/upgrade and every Security update.

Nobody is able to tell you whether you should or shouldn't use AV software on the basis of 100% certainty, but most of us have experience with commercial AV software and find it can be either invasive or unsuccessful or both. Those of us familiar with some experts on the subject also understand that commercial AV software for the Mac has a more likely chance of missing a problem than finding one. In other words you are just as well off without it.

I've use Macs since 1988 and never used AV software. I also never experienced a problem because I practice good surfing sense. You are the best AV software available for your computer. This is not "faith" rather it is "fact."

Why not? Because it isn't necessary. Why put anything onto your computer if it is of no value? It is not possible for AV software to detect problems without being intrusive in some way. Badly written software is what is destructive. Quite a few AV products on the market are destructive on Macs.

Furthermore, Thomas_r, our resident expert of malware, has tested Sophos and about ten other AV products for the Mac to see how well the found malware. Sophos was shown to do no better than the other products, namely, poorly. Not even ClamXAV performed all that well.

You are well off simply relying on the built-in anti-malware software that is now part of OS X.

If you have an ad-blocker installed in your browser, if you have pop-ups blocked in your browser preferences, and if you don't go around downloading third-party software from unidentified developers or shady sites, then the answer to "Why not?" would be, "It's not necessary." Also, anti-virus programs just hog resources and take up space. That may not fit the dictionary definition of "intrusive" or "destructive," but why clutter your hard drive with things you don't need?

I will be honest and say there is a chance that malware/adware could get on your system, but anti-virus programs don't look for malware/adware. Malwarebytes Anti-Malware for Mac is a great program to download and use IF you get malware/adware, but the chances of any one user needing to download and use that program is rather small, particularly if they're careful about their Internet habits and don't use unsecured hotspots.

To say that Macs have their own built-in anti-virus software is a bit of a misnomer. They have certain protections that prevent anything but trojan horses. And even then you must really have some serious gullibility problems to allow a trojan horse on your system. By default, root user is disabled. When you turn on the software sharing firewall and uncheck all the boxes in Apple menu -> System Preferences -> Sharing your Mac's inbound networking ports are in stealth mode. That won't prevent a ping attack from creating havoc on your network. A good router with ping attack prevention will.

Dialogs may come up as you browse the web claiming you got a virus, but when you check the download folder more times than not, the file is a .exe file, which 99% of time poses no risk at all, unless you run Windows on your Mac. Zip files sometimes can be masked as .exe file and extract that way. And since plugins make a lot of the web, they can leave behind bad cookies or cache files, that can seriously slow down your browsing. If you get a nuisance dialog the best action is just to command-option-escape and force quit the web browser, and not respond to any dialogs. Because someone could make an innocuous response to a dialog download a bad cookie of some sort or redirect you to a trojan horse of a web page that looks innocuous, and if you don't pay attention to the exact link you went to it can be an illegitimate website spoofing a good one.

People more at risk, open their Macs on file sharing services to download illicit software. I have helped people who have, and found many stolen software titles masquerade as final release software titles, and really are buggy releases, or ones that do not belong to the original publisher. Stay away from torrent based downloads, and peer2peer stolen software to avoid the darker sides of the internet.

E-mail downloads can be risky if they have executable AppleScripts. Do not enter your administrator password for any download from an untrustworthy source. I actually go as far as to turn off all automatic updates, and go occasionally to Adobe And Java.com to see if there are updates I might need, or to the App Store. That way, I know any popup window I'm getting is not from a source I trust.

Your most important prevention is a good backup plan*:

http://www.macmaps.com/backup.html

* Links to my pages may give me compensation.

robfromgreen mountain wrote:

Several other respondents recommended going without protection. Is this a faith in Apple's Security, or hoping no one cares about my bank account?

No, it's just that there is currently no known malware capable of compromising your bank account as long as you keep your software fully up-to-date and don't disable any of the protection that comes with it. Unless you allow physical or shared access to your computer allowing spyware to be installed, there isn't any malware infection capable of harvesting your bank account credentials. Any such compromise would almost have to have been caused by a phishing attempt of some sort that A-V softwares often don't find.

Leave GateKeeper set to a high setting, enable automatic install of system data files and security updates, turn your firewall on whenever you are away from a trusted router at home or work and use strong WPA2 passwords on your WiFi network. Stay away from sketchy and all bit-torrent sites. Download all 3rd party software from the App Store or developers site and closely read what the installer is telling you to avoid accidentally installing Adware (annoying, but not malicious).

robfromgreen mountain wrote:

This is a home office situation. I have installed your suggested Sophos AV, giving it a try. Several other respondents recommended going without protection. Is this a faith in Apple's Security, or hoping no one cares about my bank account?

There are no Mac viruses, and no need for protection against them. Your Macs inbuilt protection can take care of known malware.

Is this a faith in Apple's Security, or hoping no one cares about my bank account?

Well, partially yes to the first part; however, regarding your bank account: I believe that a hacker would most likely try to hack into your bank's server and get many customers' information to either sell or use for ID theft rather than trying to hack into your computer where s/he'll "only" gets yours. I'd be far more worried about that, especially since there appear to be news reports at least once a week of large companies or federal agencies being hacked into stealing millions of people's infos, and, as far as I know, there is no software installed on your computer that can thwart such a crime. And, crooks operate looking for gullible people who will give them remote access to their computer because "a virus" was detected long distance (which is obviously absurd) also will not be stopped by your AV software. So, your best AV software is you.

Do not install any version of Norton, or any other Symantec product (whatever they call it) it is superfluous junk.