Mac Virus Protection; why bother?

narco said "Assuming the virus software can block viruses from emails" You're e-mail provider doesn't scan for viruses for you? Mine does. (They use ClamAV.) https://www.fastmail.fm/ http://www.clamav.net/ Also, Mac OS X Server 10.4 has added support for ClamAV to their mail services. http://www.apple.com/server/macosx/features/mailservices.html

Operating without protection is gangster

Virus software is always after the fact. They don't build software to fix what doesn't exist. So no virus software until there is actually one in existence. That's like paying for gas to ride a bicycle. As far as other computers go, Windows is a choice, let those who make such choices deal with it. Norton's strings crap all over your hard drive and often has interfered with installations of programs. Why pay for what doesn't do anything? If you must have AV, get Clam AV, it's free.

Never run the stuff. As others have said, I'll worry about it IF/when something affects the Mac. Till then I'll just relax, sit back and just enjoy my good fortune and wise choice in computers :-).

Scott Mesch wrote: "If you want a daily hassle of updating your virus software and want your computer to run at 50% or less speed, then add anti-virus software to your Mac!!" Daily updates?? Norton 10 gets updates about once every 10 days and it's automatic. And I've not noticed any slow down since I installed it. I ran for a month when I got my Mac mini before I got it, but only did so at my own leisure. 50% or less speed?? What kind of Macs are you running on? Even my older Umax that runs OS 9.1 and Virex 6.1 didn't experience any slow down when I installed it. Now if we are talking Windows and the 5 different apps I have to run every single day, then I can agree with your end results.

AHM wrote: "Another point is that even with Windows, both spyware and viruses are very easy to avoid if you don't open unknown attachments, don't use Outlook, don't install dodgy programs, don't run IE, and have macro virus protection on." At some point, all of these "avoids" hinder how people actually do work on their systems. There are some sites that work only on IE. If you connect to Exchange Server, there's not that many alternatives to Outlook that work for most. "I've run Windows on my work and home machines for years w/o a single spyware or virus (except for the stuff that was there when the machine was given to me due to incompetent IT people). Practice safe hex and you'll be fine. Better, teach other people to do so (especially Windows users). A lot of viruses spread via social engineering." I agree... *if* you can teach people to not do stupid things on a computer, then they won't get hit. But that's never 100%, no matter how much you teach and explain something to a user that isn't a techie or literate in the world of Windows. I have several clients that I manage (all on Windows systems) and a good 40% of them will click on an attachment and get infected (before the AV company has a chance to issue a new protection update). Over the years, I've rarely been hit with a virus because I know what to do. As for the Mac and virus protection, I run it (Norton ver. 10) just in case and as a nice background safety measure. And as the Mac starts to get more popular and gaining more market share, the useless hackers will find another avenue to waste their talents on, working towards that 15 mins of fame their stunted egos thrive on. I say, at least run the free AV... you can never start protecting yourself too soon.

It is ridiculous to add anti-virus software to any Mac. I work as a network consultant for Mac and Windows systems. Even if the anti-virus software is free, it is not worth the trade off. Those of you who are recommending anti-virus software for a Mac are ignoring the fact the it slows down your computer a great deal and causes incompatibilities with other software. This is a BIG price to pay. My company removes virues from Windows computers for our clients several times each week. Frankly, getting a virus and then removing it is less of a hassle than putting up with the problems that anti-virus software causes. Out of the thousands of Windows viruses out there, I have not seen any that delete users files. If you want a daily hassle of updating your virus software and want your computer to run at 50% or less speed, then add anti-virus software to your Mac!!

Thanks for the feedback guys.

I'm a newbie to the mac and not very tech savvy. I installed all sorts of virus protection/anti-spyware protection programs on my old windows machine. when I switched over to a mac I signed up right away to .mac just to get Virex. Now I've been told that Apple is dropping Virex due to problems getting it to work with Tiger. I'd like to thank TUAW for starting this topic. Does anyone know if ClamXav has any problems with Tiger, and is it a good replacement for Virex.

If it were possible to make a self-replicating virus that could harm Unix, it would have been done in the last 30 years. The argument of Windows platform dominance was only a valid point in the OS 9 and previous years. We now run essentially the same core as the machines that run the internet. There are as many people who wish to do Unix and its variants harm as there are people who wish to do Windows harm. The fact of the matter is, the only "virus" you can get on your Mac, or any *nix based system, are not virii, but pranks. Files that *you* download and execute, thinking that they are one thing, but that do something else. And they won't have any earmarks of a virus that an AV scanner would pick up, because they will be running code that executes valid system commands, such as deleting your User directory. Historically, there are a few rare MS-DOS based viruses that successfully latched themselves into Unix computers, but they never worked as intended. More common are Windows-targetting viruses that are intentionally hosted and ran from Unix systems: still a different game. And the insanely few worms, trojan, and exploit "success stories" on Unix (again, no self-replicating, hence, no actual viruses) don't fall into the same dimension as Windows viruses. I cannot stress this enough. If people turn their attention to Mac for malicious code, Trojans are where you are vulnerable. And there can't be a wildfire spread like what happens in the Windows world, because they cannot self-replicate and send themselves to other Mac users. You will screw yourself from downloading Mac warez, opening the .dmg, and giving the Trojan root access. None of the AV scanners will stop that from happening. And FWIW, even in this scenario, your O/S is never at risk. Your files are, the O/S is not. If you have a proper backup routine, even in this case, you will be fine.