Virus protection

[petermarrek]

I have reason to believe that my desktop mac is infected with a virus, possibly from macdefender. Any suggestions about detection software that is known safe? Have received a lot of banking emails asking for ID info.

[StuartOnline]

I have reason to believe that my desktop mac is infected with a virus, possibly from macdefender. Any suggestions about detection software that is known safe? Have received a lot of banking emails asking for ID info.

Hi Peter,

Have you checked out How to avoid or remove Mac Defender malware that was posted on the Apple Website on June 8th?

I also have Intego installed that works well.

Stu

[petermarrek]

Installed Intego, scanned my computer. It claimed that there were 7 infected files, moved them to trash and secure deleted them. Used my OSX disk to repair my system folder, so far so good. Really hard to trust again, these hackers are getting better.

[RobSaecker]

Have you read the Apple page that Stuart linked to yet? It's really not that difficult to avoid Mac defender if you follow the advise there.

[Rowat]

I use ESET Nod 32 (strange name I know) for my virus protection. Light weight in terms of processor overhead in my experience and I haven't had any problems with viruses (ie it has caught several, but my system is fine). Link here: http://www.eset.com/us/home/cybersecurity-for-mac

$40/year seems like a pretty reasonable investment.


Andrew.

[BobShram]

Installed Intego, scanned my computer. It claimed that there were 7 infected files, moved them to trash and secure deleted them. Used my OSX disk to repair my system folder, so far so good. Really hard to trust again, these hackers are getting better.

Not sure if getting better are words I would use, though I can't think of anything else that would fit that does not include a swear word or two. In my view anyone caught hacking should have thier fingers or any thing else removed that can operate a computer, this would include company execs that allow thier people to produce spam and all the other stuff that is dumped on our PC's, Mac's or other personnel equipment. But that is not going to happen. Hope that Intego works for you Peter, I understand the not trusting the computer thing, takes the edge off using them a little bit.

[Steve House]

I second Rowat's recommedation for ESET's system security.  I use it on all my Windows machines. Very low footprint, negligable impact on system performance, updates itself as needed hourly when connected to the web.

[Pictus]

Good AV reviews/comparatives http://www.av-comparatives.org/en/comparativesreviews/detection-test