Apple recommend running Antivirus utilities

What is this? Apple finally acknowledging that Mac OS is not immune to viruses?

Last Modified: November 21, 2008
Article: HT2550

http://support.apple.com/kb/HT2550?viewlocale=en_US

i think it is a good thing that apple acknoledges that their OS is not immune. at least it might make a few people be more careful when using mac, and not thinking that they are vulnurable.

sorry if this has been posted before.

 

Apple protecting themselves from lawsuits is more like it.

 

mac is getting popular now especially with the iMac range and new Mac Book Pro. Apple even have idiots like me for customers so yeah better watch out folks.

 

still,it never will be as bad as windows...and yes,looks like they are protecting themselves.

 

Better safe than sorry... Hope the mac versions of these antivirus programs won't be as resource hogging as some of their windows counterparts.

 

lol

is this even necessary or possible!?

in windows, using multiple anti-virus or firewall would cause lots of problem and headache.

 

Hmm... Perhaps with the different architecture macs can support multiple AVs... which also begs the question why someone would buy a mac, pay the OSX premium and then cough out another 100 dollars for multiple AVs?

Wasn't macs' "immunity" to viruses one of their key selling points? I know that's a big reason why my mom has a macbook.

 

I never use virus software on any of my machines. The key is to have good backups.

 

Yeah just protecting them self's just encase that one virus does happen they don't have to deal with some one else suing them for millions of dollars.

 

yeah, one of my friend... or two.. or three... never uses anti-virus in their windows machine. they (claim) never having any trouble with viruses on them.

i rarely gotten any virus in my windows machine.. i nearly forgot the last time i get a virus.. few i got occasionally, but googling seems turns out to be a false positive.

still... i heavily recommend having security suite (virus/spyware/firewall) on windows machine.

not so much on mac system. i wouldnt certainly get multiple!

 

no money in mac viruses, the big money is in IE and windows.

 

http://research.corsaire.com/whitepapers/080818-securing-mac-os-x-leopard.pdf

might be a good start

 

Use to be. Vista has really done a great job of keeping viruses out and now you see virus writers looking elsewhere. Where MS has struggled in the past with viruses, they have also learned and learned how to make a bullet proof OS. Now Apple is entering that realm because of increased popularity and it may hit them a little hard. MS is going to do it right by offering a free virus scan software soon with other alternatives that are also pretty bulletproof. This will be interesting.

 

free virus scan software....tell me more.

 

Virus writers could start heavily targeting Safari, Quicktime, and iTunes. Those are some popular apps that run on both Macs and Windows; there have been security problems before on those apps.

 

Here is the link http://forum.notebookreview.com/showthread.php?t=322405

 

http://gizmodo.com/5100996/false-alarm-apple-mac-os-x-anti+virus-recommendation-is-old

 

^lol,I was going to post it

 

My brother had one hit his servers and work stations a couple of weeks ago. Took him 12 hrs to convence Apple it was a virus/worm. The reason the notice was given.

He said it was a variation of this : http://www.macworld.com/article/49440/2006/02/oompa.html

 

It may be old, but the truth is that it's only a matter of time before OSX becomes a target. It's got good underpinnings, but even the best OS is subject to virus's. Primarily because Apple doesn't have complete control over the software installed on OSX. There will or already are plenty of programs for OSX that have vulnerabilities. We just haven't seen them exploited yet.

It is false to say OSX is "immune" to virus's, this assertion will cause lot of harm in the future because many less than knowledgeable OSX users actually believe it. It's better to tell people the truth, which is that OSX appears to be pretty secure, but is by no means "immune".

For years I never used an AV program on my windows machines, but then my kids began using my computers. They all have paid versiions AVG or eset/nod32 on them now.

 

So are there any good, free, anti-virus options for OS X?

 

ClamXav is the best thing out there right now.

 

Any need for AV software is a failure of the OS and or Application vendors. AV software will always be an enormous resource hog constantly monitoring all IO for the presence of virus signatures and frequent updates of said signatures.

Even with all that overhead they are not a sure thing for even inadvertent infections of your software is open to it and NOTHING can protect against a user being duped into running something that infect their machine.

If OSX or any other piece of software I use gets to the point I worry about a significant risk of inadvertent infections, I'll stop using that software (or OS) and get something else.

Until then I do full image backups weekly and multi version file backups daily with no impact to my productivity and never worry about a broken, failed, or infected machine.

 

So uhh, what happens if osx does start to get viruses and so forth?

I dunno if their is an os out there without viruses, but i guess youd go to linux?

 

Then I guess Linux is next?

 

AV software does not have to run constantly at all times in the background. Best to have a scanner anyways in case you do get a bug.

 

Yup, Linux, FreeBSD or something else more secure and/or less targeted.

There are naysayers out there that think OSX is no more secure than Windows but as its based on Unix I don't buy that. It may be less secure than Unix due to the convenience features it provides automatically feeding content types to various applications but it still far more secure than Windows even if just by its architecture. With no effective "wild" viruses in play and most security holes being found only resulting in theoretical random code execution, I'm not currently worried.

 

If you don't have it running all the time (as all current mainstream AV software can in addition to periodic scans) you get infected, the virus does whatever it does, you detect it and then try and recover from that?

I think an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure here. No telling what it did or left around so an image restore is the only solution I would trust at that point. And what about the viruses that get what they get and then leave undetected?

Sorry but if I have to run an insecure OS for business reasons or there is nothing better to go to I'll take the full time protection as illusionary as it really is.

 

I have been fine for years now without running any virus protection apps on any of my Mac or PCs.

if you aren't an idiot you shouldn't have any problems with no anti-virus.

the majority don't do anything but take up system resources when it really comes down to it.

I challenge you, take one month to run zero virus protection, and just keep regular backups.

 

You think OS X users would be a big target for viruses since there are millions of Mac users and 99% of them don't run anti viruses, you'd think there would be a crap load of viruses.

 

Apple has axed that page:

http://www.informationweek.com/news...cleID=212201749&subSection=Macintosh+Platform

 

A lot of hubbub about nothing.

 

More info. on why OS X is more secure:
http://gizmodo.com/5101337/giz-explains-why-os-x-shrugs-off-viruses-better-than-windows

 

Assuming you've got a good firewall. My IDS logs are literally overflowing with attempted exploits that require little or no action from the computer operator to gain access to a system. many simply require a vulnerable port or service running on the target computer.

There is no such thing as a secure networked computer and there probably never will be.

 

Good point. Many people get exploited and will never know it. That goes for both OS X and Windows. It is a good thing that there are solutions for OS X now, it is only a matter of time before it explodes with tremendous force.

 

yes... ... ...

 

Yeah, don't worry about antivirus for Mac just yet...it will be a lot bigger news when we actually need it .

 

Why waste time with writing a virus for 5% of the computers in the world that don't do anything except make pretty pictures, play music and watch iTunes movies lol. You want to really F things up, you write one for PCs that can take down financial systems or mine for privileged information.

 

Nice stab.