tamerafrommetolius wrote:
What is a free iOS anti virus app called
It's called a waste of money, effort, time and space on your hard drive. As dialabrain replied it's totally not needed. The same goes for any "cleaning", "optimizing" or "speedup" apps for the Mac. Avoid them like the plague.
Can you clarify. Is this for a phone or a computer. Perhaps you could find a moment to read this document for guidance as to how to ask a question in the Communities.
Hello BobTheFisherman,
Probably in the past however, virus, trojan, cryptoware are now a reality.
Below some example:
It's a fact, viruses are everywhere, Windows, Android, Linux, Mac.
MacOS was never spared by viruses, hackers were not interested in these machines because the money generated by their viruses was not enough.
Today is different, more and more people buy Apple, so there is more and more target, so money.
Hello tamerafrommetolius,
If you try to find Free Antivirus solution for your Mac, you can use Sophos Home
https://home.sophos.com/download-mac-anti-virus
Solution is free for 3 devices (Windows / Mac).
Hope this information will help you.
Those sites you are quoting as backup for claim to support AV software on the Mac are in fact some of the worst purveyors of FUD when it comes to Macs.
There still has not been a confirm case of a virus attacking a Mac.
AV software is probably the worst thing to find malware. They are know to do far more harm then good on a Mac.
The best solution on a Mac is to keep your software current with what Apple has released and avoid the crapware being provided by third party vendors.
Allan Eckert wrote:
There still has not been a confirm case of a virus attacking a Mac.
Actually that's not quite true. The nVIR virus popped up in 1987 and can still infect Macs running System 4.1 to OS 8. 😎
X-Protect system cannot protect against all attack unfortunately.
Flashback infected 600000 macs systems however X-Protect system do nothing.
First ransomware was detected in 2016 and infected lot of Mac in companies.
In real life, Mac products are less likely to have viruses or attacks, but that does not mean there are no threats on Mac.
Protection is needed, especially now.
There has yet to be an actual virus that can affect the Mac OS. Not since OS X's introduction, anyway. There were a few in OS 9 and earlier, but they were few and far between, and easily removed or defeated.
Lots of "experts" who should know better use the word virus as a catchall phrase, when that word is malware (malicious software). I can't even begin to count how many web sites I've read where they scream "Mac virus", and not a single piece of malware they list as a virus is one.
Your third link says OSX/MaMi is a virus. While Sophos themselves correctly list it as a Trojan.
Viruses self replicate. Moving from one file to another, or computer to another with no assistance from the user. These do not yet exist. The closest anyone ever came to that was the now long dead Flashback. If you had Java installed and active for your web browser, just visiting an infected site would cause Flashback to be installed on your Mac. Purely virus behavior. However, this was not a flaw in the OS that allowed the infection, but one of the numerous holes in Java. Without Java, all the site could do was cause your admin password dialogue to popup. If the user had any sense at all, they'd deny access to something they didn't initiate.
Worms are smarter than viruses, which can only infect directly viewed files and hardware, such as an attached drive. Worms go beyond that by actively searching out other computers across a network. The only know worm was Oompa-Loompa (Leap-A). Also now long dead. If you had it on your Mac, it would first act as a Trojan by causing the admin box to appear on the Mac of users in your Messages app. If they allowed an unknown app to proceed, it would install on their Mac, then once again acting as a worm to find yet more Macs on their user list. There were likely more, but the reported number of infected Macs was a grand total of 50.
Trojans are rampant. They include anything that you have to install in some manner. Whether that's the billion types of adware out there, or more insidious apps such as keyloggers and back doors. The latter almost exclusively found in illegal downloads of cracked commercial software.
Ransomware is out there, though the only two or three known variants ever found have been patched against. In reality, ransomware is simply another Trojan since you have to download and install it. It can't get on your Mac by itself.
The only thing you can truly call a virus that still exists are Word macro viruses. And those are almost 100% Windows malware. That is, the macro can't do anything to harm a Mac since the payload only runs on Windows. And unless you've changed the default settings in Word, if you happen to get an infected Word document sent to you, the macro can't run until you allow it (Word will warn you the document contains a macro and gives you the option to run or block it).
Whoops! I forgot the best part!
Let's not forget how utterly, totally worthless all AV software is. Since virtually all Mac malware are Trojans, your AV software can't stop anything. What that software is can't be known until your install and run it. Your AV software may jump in with a warning after the fact, but it's too late, then.
There are numerous topics on these forums alone that prove how pointless AV software is on a Mac. My favorite? The person had three different types of AV software installed and running. And yet, an EtreCheck report showed that their Mac was loaded with adware and other garbage. Yeah, the AV software was working just great!
dialabrain wrote:
I "graduated" to Supercard and I miss that. I also miss After Dark. Especially the dude that mowed the lawn.
One of the later versions of After Dark gave you the ability to have some of the animations run on the desktop. Including the one with very lifelike bugs. Whatever the open window was would suddenly ripple and a bug would pop out from under the edge. It was fantastic.
People talk about how computers are now "toys" unlike, back in the old days we did all sorts of tweaking. But, a lot of that was really just playing. I just can't imagine now spending the amount of time on customization that I used to back then. I was a dab hand at resource editing, custom sound sets, custom folder icons.
Any that you don't install. Which you shouldn't.
Effective defenses against malware and other threats
If you actually mean for an iOS device, you're in the wrong community.
tamerafrommetolius wrote:
What is a free iOS anti virus app called
Worthless.
You're being too polite. 🙂
You don't have to worry about your Mac getting a virus. It's not going to happen. Protect yourself from malware. Download and install Malwarebytes. It's free to use.
anti virus apps
