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What is the best spyware/Anti-Virus Protection for a Mac?

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Pathfinder55

macrumors 6502
Original poster
Aug 18, 2007
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What is the best spyware or Anti-Virus Protection for a mac, or do you need one? Tell me your thoughts.
 
Pathfinder55 said:
What is the best spyware or Anti-Virus Protection for a mac, or do you need one? Tell me your thoughts.
Click to expand...

Just don't install Windows, or if you do, don't share your Mac files across your Windows partition :p

But i think the general consensus is those programs do way more harm than good on Macs. But, as stated above, ClamXav is good at finding infected Windows files that lie dormant on your system that you may manually and inadvertently pass along to your Windows-using friends.
 
The best spyware/virus protection is a smart user that does not click on everything.
The second best is to have OS X. Unlike XP the user does not have administration rights and thus it is harder to infect the system in a permanent way. And unlike vista the user is not asked to confirm to raise the privilige of a whatever program todo whatever. In vista it is not possible to see which program wants to have the raised priviliged and what it will do with that...
Of course there still might be some suspicious software for the Mac, but it mostly requires the user todo something stupid. And as the Mac is not so popular yet it is not such a good target for hackers.
Btw. it might help to switch on the firewall so that not yet known bugs in a service of OS X can not be exploited so easily.
Of course you still need all the fancy protection stuff for your bootcamp..
 
All I have installed are ClamXav (I do switch between Mac and PC often), and Little Snitch (you never really know what installed programs send back or why).

That said, I'm a little paranoid but I've never had problem
 
killerrobot said:
All I have installed are ClamXav (I do switch between Mac and PC often), and Little Snitch (you never really know what installed programs send back or why).

That said, I'm a little paranoid but I've never had problem
Click to expand...

Yeah I second Little Snitch... it just keeps you safe from sending info into the wrong hands if you install a lot of shareware apps. I don't know about everyone else, but I'm addicted to trying out all these shareware programs from macupdate and versiontracker. There are some very creative authors out there!

Cheers.
 
AV Software

Hi,

After fully switching about 6 months ago, I found the concept of not installing any AV completely weird. I opted for Intego VirusBarrier X4 and quite like it. It has a smooth interface and it updates regularly.

It might be overkill to some, but I'd rather have something in place just in case. I also use MacScan to look for spyware/trojans and the like.

I'd never heard of "little snitch" until now so I'm off to take a look at it to see what it can do.
 
Pathfinder55 said:
What is the best spyware or Anti-Virus Protection for a mac, or do you need one? Tell me your thoughts.
Click to expand...

Best spyware on the Mac? Haven't found any yet, so I can't comment.
Best Anti-Virus protection on the Mac? I'm wondering why you would want Anti-Virus protection. If you don't want anti-virus software, just don't install it. Now if you want to know about _virus_ protection, I recommend installing MacOS X. That's the best one available at the moment. :D
 
Don't bother with anti-virus/spyware software on OS X. Just apply common sense and capitalise on OS X's built in security features.

By this, I mean...
  • Switch on the OS X Firewall (and be as stealthy as you can).
  • Implement a sensible backup strategy.
  • Set your browser to not automatically open files that you download.
  • Keep OS X and your apps up to date.
  • If you have a wireless network, use WPA (or WPA2) encryption. Activate your router's firewall (if it has one), and change its default passwords.
  • Don't trust strange networks.
  • Take care with your passwords and personal info. Try not to use the same password for everything. Don't let your browser store your passwords.
  • Ignore emails that pretend to be from eBay, PayPal, sexy collage students, off-shore pharmacies, your bank or the exiled 3rd in line to the throne of an oil-rich region of Uganda.
  • Don't click on the fart button.
  • Stick to your sensible backup strategy.
  • Make sure any Windows installations you are close to are suitably malware-protected.
  • Keep an eye on macrumors.com... if there's a real security threat doing the rounds, you'll probably hear about it here pretty sharpish.
All that might sound obvious, but I'm amazed at the number of people (mainly Windows users) who think they're 100% safe from any kind of mishap just because they've got Norton or McAfee installed.

You don't need AV on OS X. Really, really, really.

SL
 
Just use AVG on your Windows side and nothing on your OS X side.

Use AdAware and Spybot every 6 months or so on Windows and you should be fine.

After fully switching about 6 months ago, I found the concept of not installing any AV completely weird. I opted for Intego VirusBarrier X4 and quite like it. It has a smooth interface and it updates regularly.

It might be overkill to some, but I'd rather have something in place just in case. I also use MacScan to look for spyware/trojans and the like.

I'd never heard of "little snitch" until now so I'm off to take a look at it to see what it can do.
Click to expand...

Why's it weird? You don't wear a motorbike helmet in your car! :)
 
Whats the deal with Little Snitch?

I have heard a bunch of good things about Little Snitch...I installed it not too long ago....but now I am so annoyed about how many times it wants me to give permission to make a connection. How do I change this? There must be some way to make it so that I can surf the web without having to do this constantly...right? Or would it be better to just uninstall the whole program?
 
Yeah there are no viruses for macs but I looked into this little snitch because I thought it might be a good idea to have something to scan my mac with once a month or so just to be safe...so I was told to install the demo....heard good things.....but it ended up being more trouble than its worth.....or i just dont know how to use it properly.....any one have any ideas?
 
paulo9TWS said:
I have heard a bunch of good things about Little Snitch...I installed it not too long ago....but now I am so annoyed about how many times it wants me to give permission to make a connection. How do I change this? There must be some way to make it so that I can surf the web without having to do this constantly...right? Or would it be better to just uninstall the whole program?
Click to expand...

Once you've given permission to an application then it shouldn't ask you again if you've allowed it properly. Just make sure to always allow if you trust it
 
I've just got the demo....so there is no escaping all of these permission requests? Do you know how I can uninstall it...I tried removing all of the folders and what not and I still had that feed running in the upper right corner? Do I have to wait for the 3 hours to expire and then try to remove all of the folders and such? I am a recent Mac convert...so some of the procedures are still a little new to me....Thanks a lot.
 
I take it you're referring to removing little snitch...

Run the activity monitor apple utility and kill the following processes:
Little Snitch UIAgent
Little Snitch Netowrk Monitor
LIttle Snitch La

Those are the 3 that are running on my computer right now.

Next run spotlight and drag the little snitch folders and programs that comes up to the trash. Make sure not to drag anything that doesn't say little snitch!

I think it's command & spacebar to pull up spotlight. I've changed mine to option+command & spacebar so I can't remember the default keys.

A better solution for someone who's unsure of what to do would probably be to download appzapper. It's a pretty easy to use program. Just run app zapper and then go to your applications folder and drag the program you want to delete to the appzaper target box. You'll get a list of related files and a confirmation to send them to the trash.

http://www.macupdate.com/info.php/id/20306/appzapper

Hope that helps more than it could of confused you!

Cheers!
 
KingYaba said:
$25 for a Little Snitch license key, yikes! :eek:
Click to expand...

I will sell you "The Rock of Virus Detection" for $20, it may look like a normal garden stone but if you sit this on your desk next you your mac I guarantee you will get no viruses or money back :D

Ohh and as a added bonus the "The Rock of Virus Detection" also protects against real tigers attacking you while using OSX tiger, you don't get better than that :p
 
gormond said:
I will sell you "The Rock of Virus Detection" for $20, it may look like a normal garden stone but if you sit this on your desk next you your mac I guarantee you will get no viruses or money back :D

Ohh and as a added bonus the "The Rock of Virus Detection" also protects against real tigers attacking you while using OSX tiger, you don't get better than that :p
Click to expand...

No thanks I already have the empty coffee cup of virus justice which protects my system from all that is evil :)

Seriously why not enjoy one of the best parts of having OSX ... relax it works and you don't need to be a sys admin ... no really it does ... now go and edit some photos.
 
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