Mac users: antivirus? If so, which one?

I just took delivery of a Mac. The IT guys at work are suggesting loading an antivirus program, but did not really recommend one.

Any input would be appreciated.

i use mcafee on my PC. it works fine. i'd assume they have one for mac too, though I don't know of any mac users who use virus scanners.

To be honest, at this point there is no need. There really hasn't been a successful virus for the Mac. As Apple's market share grows it will become more of a target, but for right now I don't think you need one. In my 10+ years on a mac, I've never had a single virus. My old PC would get a virus every month it seemed, so I got rid of it, I didn't have any reason to have both anymore.

I don't use antivirus software on any of my non-server Macs. I run it on the Mac that operates as a web host/mail server, but only so it can snuff infected messages that are sent to mail clients (some of which run Windows). There are routinely 300-500 quarantined infected messages/day. But I've never had a problem with malware on a Mac. There are web sites you can visit which will try to exploit Mac vectors; there is certainly Mac wannabe malware.

Of course, all bets are off if you run Windows on your Mac under Parallels or VMWare virtualization systems...

I am planning to run WMWare with XP, but planned to run anti-virus and spyware on the Windows side of it, but did not know about the Mac OS.

I have been using Macs since 1984 and have never used a virus program. Why would you need one?

Why would you need one?

Well I suppose you don't - yet. Macs are not inherently immune from viruses, worms, trojan attacks, or anything else that's common on PCs. They may be better set up to prevent them, but the main reason they haven't been hit with anything yet is numbers. Not enough people trying to hit Macs, and not enough computers out there to make people want to.

I think it would be a big assumption to assume that Macs will never get hit with a virus...

(Actually, to clarify, there are plenty of viruses that can hit a Mac, but they haven't ever successfully shown up and propagated. At least a propagating one has never been observed "in the wild" as they say - although this is debatable.)

UNIX is fairly virus proof as long as you don't mess with permissions on your files. There have been Trojan Horses that have hit Unix systems. If a virus does hit a Parallels partition, allegedly it won't affect the UNIX side of the platform but I don't know about that; I would image that it depends on where you store your files.

I don't use a virus program on my MAC and I worked with a UNIX platform for 11 years at SGI and we never had any virus or worm problems. I do have a PC with XP and it's protected with Norton.

Carol

PS I think you'll love the MAC

Well for another view, I used to manage over 1000 Macs at a company in Atlanta. You bet your bippy there are Mac virus's out there. We ran McAfee (spelling?) or Norton Anti-Virus software on all the systems. I have to admit that we did not have the problems our PC users had - but we were getting viruses. Have to admit, that was pre-unix days. However, for the past 10 years, I have not used anything on my Mac. I am extremely careful what I download from the net. I do not allow anyone in the family to download software applications that I have not approved (either the software or the source) either from the net or disks or other sources. So far, I have been lucky, too. Please note the use of the word "lucky". I know I am courting disaster. All it takes is for you to get one BAD virus that attacks your disk and you are up the creek. Naturally, you should have your data all backed up and always current - hahahahaha how many can say they are religious about that? I am glad you brought up the question. I personally am going to re-look into anti-virus software. As a one time professional macintosh expert, programmer, and Mac support guru, I know I am playing with fire not protecting my system. This should serve as a warning to those who think the odds of getting one are too low to protect yourself. My house burning down has a fairly low probablility - but I spend big dollars to insure the house. We Mac users should spend the little $$ to protect our Macs and our images...not to mention our applications. Ever have to start from scratch before and try to find all those installation codes?

Modern anti-virus software have multiple layers of protection you can set up (I think). So, you can set it up in a manner that you do not suffer from system performance issues. Like I said, I need to re-familiarize myself with the software out there now.

Mac users might check out this page for more info:
http://antivirus.about.com/od/macintoshresource/Macintosh_Viruses_and_Mac_Virus_Resources.htm

BTW, I'm the guy who always suggests getting a MAC in order to fix the various PC problems people are asking about!! heheheheh

Troup

VirusBarrier here...with its sister, NetBarrier by Integro on my unit connected to the web. I watch what I download, but also feel that Mac are becoming a real challenge to hackers and anyway... I like to be safe.
So why aren't I better at backing up???? I am learning.

Interesting read here and thanks Troup, thats a real good read. Ok, I'm a windows user and don't get much choice about it with what I have to run. Must say though, please, please get an external hard drive and get a decent sync program that detects file changes automatically and updates the external............please. Its actually very cheap now days considering what you can lose.

I don't know if "acronis true image" works on a mac, but again, try and find the equivalent to back up the operating system. Anything goes wrong and in 10 - 15 mins, you have your complete operating system back, exactly how you had it.

All the best folks and cover your butts.

Danny.

I don't know if "acronis true image" works on a mac, but again, try and find the equivalent to back up the operating system. Anything goes wrong and in 10 - 15 mins, you have your complete operating system back, exactly how you had it.

Mac OS 10.5 ships with something called Time Machine. It performs hourly backups of your Mac, and is pretty slick. I ran a test restore on an old laptop and it was flawless. Not instantaneous; the restore of 140MB took about 45 minutes. Boot from the CD, select Time Machine and there you have it.

The Mac backup program I recommend is a free one called arRsync it is excellent and easy to use.
You can download a copy here:

http://arrsync.sourceforge.net/

Thanks Jim, well worth it for restoring and 45 mins is nothing as long as it works and it obviously does. Thats excellent to have that feature built in. Must check out that arRsync, sounds good Michael, even if I can't use it, its handy to know its there and what it can do.

Danny.

I've been using Norton on all our Macs for years. Never found any viruses or anything else. Doesn't mean I'm going to stop doing it, however. Sooner or later it's going to happen. I'd rather pay the paltry annual fee for weekly definition updates and futilely scan than sob and wail after the viruses appear.

What's that old saw about closing doors after the horse has left the barn?

I have managed thousands of UNIX systems for over two decades. UNIX (the base for Mac OS X) has had some attacks over the years, but today it has quite a robust security model. It is a very mature operating system that has stood the test of time. On Mac OS X, the ordinary user does not have super user privileges by default (unlike Windows). Any time an application tries to promote itself to super user status, a pop-up window asks you for the super user password. Any time you download an application from the internet, it knows it and asks you if you if are sure you want to run it.

I have been using a Mac only for about a year, but have been a system administrator for Sun and other UNIX systems for over 20 years. The Mac platform today does not require third-party anti-virus tools. The requirement isn't there, unlike Windows where you get a virus as soon as you install the operating system and attach the computer to the network.