Antivirus on Mac?

[ErikKaffehr]

Hi,

I just wonder what need forum participants see for virus protection on the Mac? Also which products may be used and if there are any performance issues?


Best regards
Erik

[Dale Allyn]

Hi Erik,

I'm a long-time Mac user and currently run five Macs for various tasks. Most of my friends are Mac users as well, though several use Windows or use both (and a couple use Linux). That being said, while we will likely need anti-virus software someday, I don't use any nor do any of my Mac-using friends. There have been no damaging viruses for the Mac in the wild to date, so the inconveniences that come with such software are just not justified for many (or most?) of us. You can visit boards like MacFixIt.com and I think you'll find similar sentiments.

I would recommend spending efforts on a comprehensive backup strategy first, and keep your ears and eyes open for the time when you might want to add an anti-virus layer.

If you are using your Mac to boot into Windows via Bootcamp, Parallels or similar software, then please remember that you must protect your machine from Windows viruses just as you would any dedicated Windows machine.

Hope this helps.

Dale

edit: typo

[francois]

Hi,

I just wonder what need forum participants see for virus protection on the Mac? Also which products may be used and if there are any performance issues?
Best regards
Erik
[a href=\"index.php?act=findpost&pid=178160\"][{POST_SNAPBACK}][/a]

I do use an anti-virus on my Macs. I only scan for mails with attachments and downloads. While there's no virus on the Mac, I don't want to propagate nasties to other people.
One last word: even if today the Mac is quite safe, it doesn't mean that tomorrow will be safe.

[ChrisJR]

I run 2 Mac's at home with OS-X and have never needed to use any anti-virus software, despite the fact I download tonnes of torrents which would normally kill a pc.

[mistybreeze]

My studio was hit with a macro virus several years back and they're more popular on Macs than one might think. Google "Mac macro virus." They're not big-league viruses but they're annoying and they're easy to pass along in any Word document.

Here's the kicker, we NEVER open spam email. The only email attachments we open are business correspondence. This is a studio RULE. And it's easy to get infected if you open a business document not knowing it is unsafe. By the time you discover the macro virus, many documents may have been infected.

We tried a few programs to locate and kill the virus. I can't remember which ones. Then we had to manually clean some of the Word docs that were missed in the process. Then we had to shut off macros support in Word Preferences. The clean-up process was time-consuming and utterly annoying.

In the end, my tech-assist strongly suggested VirusBarrier x. I've been using it ever since without incident. My original workstation setup included Norton SystemWorks but I somehow managed to let our registration lapse. My tech-assist strongly advise some kind of virus protection for all my Macs and I've been given this advice since 2000.

[francois]

<snip>The only email attachments we open are business correspondence. This is a studio RULE. And it's easy to get infected if you open a business document not knowing it is unsafe. By the time you discover the macro virus, many documents may have been infected.

We tried a few programs to locate and kill the virus. I can't remember which ones. Then we had to manually clean some of the Word docs that were missed in the process. Then we had to shut off macros support in Word Preferences. The clean-up process was time-consuming and utterly annoying.

In the end, my tech-assist strongly suggested VirusBarrier x. I've been using it ever since without incident. My original workstation setup included Norton SystemWorks but I somehow managed to let our registration lapse. My tech-assist strongly advise some kind of virus protection for all my Macs and I've been given this advice since 2000.
</snip>

While real viruses don't exist yet, macros are cross-platform and can really cause serious damage. On our mail server, we simply delete ms office attachments automatically and scan other incoming e-mail messages with an anti-virus software…