Virus Protection

I bought a MBP C2D on Friday and I should have it tomorrow. Anyways, I was wanting to know about any virus/firewall programs. Should I get one? If so, which one?

 

The Mac comes with an excellent firewall so you do not need third party firewall software. All you have to do is go to system preferences, sharing and enable the firewall.

I won't go so far as to say OS X is immune to viruses and spyware, but its design and default settings make an infestation highly unlikely and there has never been any widespread infestation (the worst I've heard of is a lab based theoretical possibility).

If you set you machine up as Apple suggests, and only use an admin account when you need to (installing software, and reconfiguring), you are about as safe or safer than you get in Windows land running an Internet Security package.

That said, Norton offers a suite for Mac as do a number of smaller manufacturers, but I'll forgo that massive overhead and rely on OS X and common sense until/unless something happens to me or in the real world that would worry me.

 

ClamXav for Mac OS X. Norton is poison. There are no real viruses for Mac OS X but ClamXav scans for Windows/Mac Classic viruses so you don't spread them. If that is not a good reason to get it, how about it being free? I've used this program alot and loved it.

 

yeah, stay away from norton and sophos, they kill macs.

a second vote for ClamXav. its good. but all in all, if you are alert and watch what you are doing, you don't have to worry about viruses.

plus if you keep up with the mac community, we find out about things fast and get it around fast so people know (be it good or bad),

 

Don't get an antivirus. I hate antivirus, due to the concept they represent. Let me tell you a story. My teacher at college once got a Dell notebook, and I asked what he thought about the machine. He said he was liking it a lot, his only complain was that there had to be so many antivirus/spyware running that the machine felts slow. People got used to using a crapload of anti-something apps - such as to the extent that this is a commom question switchers ask here. People think that getting virus is *normal*. Well, it isn't. Just because the most used OS is defective by design and now there is a whole industry set on something that should never existed in the first place, doesn't mean you have to comply with it.
The OS should guarantee a more than reasonable level of protection against malware. That is what one should expect. Besides, anti-virus makes you lazy about security. I am running anti-this and anti-that, so I am secure. BS. Even with OS X or Linux, knowledge is the best defense against malware. There is no 100% failproof OS in respect to security, but I just hate the Windows model which led to the state of accepting virus and spyware as normal.

 

^^^^that is a pretty out of touch comment I must say.

I agree to not get an Anti Virus for your Mac as it just isn't necessary at this time, not because OSX is so much more secure (even if the way the code is written is better, it is all about the popularity of the OS)

If OSX was 98% of the market it would be in the exact same shape as Windows.

but right now that is the beauty of OSX, people don't write Viruses etc. because of the amount of people it is going to effect.

why people write pointless Viruses for Windows? don't know, some are just completely pointless, others have more purpose.

There is no "windows model" that is just how it developed. Microsoft decided to let other developers have more control when it comes to security, to try to keep it open, but unfortunately that wasn't a great idea and they have started to correct that with Vista, taking some control away from developers of Virus programs, which is definitely a good thing.

Unfortunately though as long as Windows is as popular as it always has been it will be a problem.

Luckily, since Apple will probably keep their OS available only on their own hardware, it won't reach the popularity Windows has, unless they start selling cheaper and more types of hardware. which is probably a good thing.

but honestly any question you ask about a technology company that starts with Why did they do this? etc. can be answered with one word.

Money.

 

The thing about clamxav is that it isn't running in the background. it only scans what you tell it to scan once you open it.

 

Actually Wookie is right, and most of your comments with respect to OS X are incorrect. While Windows for sure has a lot of implementation issues, most of its security problems are the result of its design (or lack thereof).

The reason you don't see malware issues on OS X is not because its perfectly implemented, its that it was designed with security in mind. As with a lot of other OS's that were designed with security in mind - and do not suffer from malware issues.

So, no, OS X would not be in the same boat as Windows if it were more popular. Its not that people are not trying to hack OS X (most hackers are after a challenge and fame and a successful OS X attack would truly bring fame). Check out that culture on the internet and you will see there are no shortage of folks working to that end.

That said - again Wookie is right - your best defense is care an knowledge, not anti-ware. There may very well be a successful Mac attack (groan) at some point, but because of OS X's design it will never suffer from a significant level of these attacks. If you run mostly from a non-admin account as Apple suggests, and only install things from trusted sources when on an admin account the likelihood of any infestation is incredibly small.

 

Another vote to AVOID Norton - which is a virus & spy/adware in and of itself. Once you install norton, it does not ever going away. It's an insidious manifestation of a good product gone bad.

 

Not really. The registry, ActiveX controls, the way scripts/macros are implemented in Office, default behaviour of Outlook/IE, the inability to run lots of apps in restricted mode, all these have to do with a particular development model that MS choose to go, either for one reason or the other. Indeed this is not the place to discuss if Windows is inherently less secure, and I was not touching that spot; but since you do, I'd point that lots of servers run on some kind of *NIX platforms, and there has never been infections comparable to the ones that happen in Windows, even with such a high profile target. Anyway, my point is that:
1- antivirus is unnecessary for OS X today;
2- people take virus and malware for granted, and that is a BAD thing. It creates a whole industry and culture around it that should never exist in the first place.