Markus

Afternoon all,

I was reading macfixit.com and noticed that Apple is dropping Virex from .Mac, mainly due to issues with 10.4.x and Virex (slow downs and other things).

I'm sitting here, wondering why people are using virus scanners on a Macintosh.

I think the last virus scanner I ran on a Mac was Disinfectant, around nine years ago, since that time, I've not found myself infected with a virus on my Mac, and thus see no reason to run anti-virus software.

Is it to prevent the relay of viruses to PC users? That's the only thing I can think of, as I know I can get an email with a virus attachement, which will do me no harm, but if I send it to a PC user, who is silly enough to open the attachement, it will infect them.

Any of you other Mac types run a Virus checker? if so, which one, and more importantly, why?

SwissTony

iTrader: (19)

Markus
HI MATE. First of all we all know and it has been well documented (not on here but on most tech sites), the argument for mac anti virus software is currentlylike going out the house with 2 pairs of pants.ie. just in case but slightly over the top and pointless. I say currently, as we all know that a)the market share is too small to warrent them dam virus writers to bother,b) the unix underpinnings makes it a PITA to write a decent transport virus's and c) most mac users dont just open attachments for the hell of it..
(though i could be wrong) but that situation could and probably will change if the market share increases enough to raise the mac os above the parapet.

So in answer to your question, there are several anti virus programs out there for OSX namely Symantec Norton Anti Virus (v 10.0), Sophos Unix AV etc, but the are mainly to give us a sense of extra security whilst not actually doing anything useful. yes you are right you can pass on virus's to our PC brothers, by email and file transfer, but think about email and what the mac anti virus apps do.In my knowledge none of them protect your mail program (be it mail, entourage, eudora etc) so as far as i am concerned they are ineffective because of that one glaring omission.
I have run and am currently running both Sophos and Norton, purely as a test but nothing else. oh and yes i am currently wearing 2 pairs of pants just in case...

Stueyb

I use Sophos AV as it came with our work licencing. TBH it just sits there and updates, but had no probs with viruses.

AllanB

The Sophois Mac proiduct is 10.4 compatible and they announced that before 10.4 started shipping. They seem serious about the Mac market which is odd that they missed the boat with OS9 !


AllanB

class_A

I'd go with Sophos but to be honest, virus scanners on the Mac are mainly there to catch any Windows viruses that may land in your inbox so you don't unintentionally forward them to your unfortunate PC using friends

AllanB

Yeah I'd agree with that, I no longer run an AV programme since switching to OSX.



AllanB

Markus

Thanks for the replies chaps

I've spoken to a few clients and they said the main reason they run AV software is because there is a global policy in place that states that ANY computer MUST have AV software running. This obviously stems from the PC dominated side of things, where you'd be a total and abject loony to not run AV/Adware/Spyware software.

They do tend to sigh when they mention this, as they also see no point, bar redistribution of the nasties, for running AV software, be it on Pre OS X or OS X machines.

So apart from policies in force, I guess it's just a safety blanket thing.

As Mr Toblerone said, things could change. And the Mactel thing could see the start of it, not because machines will be intel based, but there may well be more macs out there. I think it'll become a bigger issue in 2 - 5 years when Apple signs a deal with Dell to allow them to sell PC's that will run OS X

RichB

Anti-What ??

Rich
G5/G4/G3 user

Stueyb

I actually visited sophos a while back on a course. Man talk about fort knox. Anywhere past reception need a mag card. Not only that but a security station with 2 huge gorillas there. Everywhere you went people accompanied you. If you wanted to go into the virus research part you, it had biometric sensors from what I remember !

Mind you got to meet some cool people, ie the advanced threat analysis wizard (ie future system threat thinker, some of the coders, support team and such.

boomer

Markus,

apart from AV - do you feel that firewall software is necessary on OSX?

Both for incoming and outgoing connections?

Just wondering, 'cos i will soon me moving to a Mac for general Interweb stuff, and don't want to spend a fortune on protection if i can help it!

mb

class_A

Mac OS X has a built-in firewall (actually if I remember it's a GUI on top of iptables) and it is switched on by default. Makes sense to use it.

Markus

As said, OS X does have a built in firewall, which, I think only limits incoming connections, though I could be wrong. You can get something like Brickhouse Firewall, which allows complete control over all incomming and outgoing connections.

Do I have the firewall enabled? no I don't. Partly as I don't feel I need to. Let me put it this way. We have a hardware firewall in place, to protect our PC's, both the servers and the client computers. The macs, well, we don't generally have the firewall software enabled and the machines site on the "outside" of the protected network.

One of the chaps does have the firewall on, but between us, we've not seen any reasons to do so, but, if it's on by default, then there is no harm done by leaving it on.

That's just my personal viewpoint though, some will possibly say I'm mad for not using it, but I've not seen an attack here, and, touch wood, I hope I won't.

Ubik

Marcus,

I run my email system on W2K3 so all our macs are protected by the AVG server for our email.

Just like you the last AV program I used on the mac was disinfectant. Don't bother with anything on the mac at home. We have thousands of cds, emailed files etc through our system every year. Not in all the time of scanning all of it did I have a problem.

The only protection we need here is on the PC. Still like you say it may change in the future but for now I don't really worry.

David

JackClark

Getting used to running AV on the Mac can't be a bad thing. It was a good few years ago but the spread of Macro viruses would have been slowed greatly if the Mac fraternity didn't have this OPP* attitude. Cross infections have occured in the past and the chances of it happening again increase with time.

*Other Peoples Problem

ScoobyDoo555

Since OSX, I've not used AV. I should really - but I've got the Mail package to Junk anything that I don't know who it's from, so it never opens.

Surely that's the most sensible method, as most viruses have to be clicked/executed to run. And surely, with the OSX security (typing in the admin password), it's really difficult to knowingly install a virus????

Or have I got the wrong end of the stick (again!)

Dan

JackClark

You have the right end of the stick for the majority of existing threats. But who knows what's around the corner.