Antivirus Articles on TUAW - The Unofficial Apple Weblog

New adware trojan targets OS X users

by Kelly Hodgkins (Mar 21st, 2013)

Adware attacks against OS X are on the rise this year, says a report by anti-virus company Doctor Web. The Russian firm recently discovered another threat, Trojan.Yontoo.1, which has quickly become the most prominent adware trojan attacking Apple desktops and laptops. The trojan worms its way ...

Securing Your Mac: A Guide for Reasonable People, Version 1.0

by TJ Luoma (Nov 30th, 2012)

"How do I protect my Mac online? Should I run any 'security' applications on my Mac?" That question arrived several weeks ago via the contact form here at TUAW, and I have been trying to come up with a reasonable answer to it ever since. That question, or a variation of it, comes fairly ...

Kapersky "disappointed" he can't sell AV software on iOS

by Steven Sande (May 23rd, 2012)

Security wonk Eugene Kaspersky is not happy with Apple, since the company won't let his eponymous antivirus firm develop antivirus software for iOS devices. Speaking to The Register, Kaspersky went so far as to say "That will mean disaster for Apple," since malware targeting the mobile ...

Kaspersky Lab: Apple is '10 years behind Microsoft' on security

by Kelly Hodgkins (Apr 26th, 2012)

Kaspersky founder and CEO Eugene Kaspersky told Computer Business Review that malware targeting the Mac is beginning to grow and Apple needs to take notice. The CEO said Apple is "ten years behind Microsoft in terms of security," and asserts that Apple must change its approach towards ...

Kaspersky Lab: Macs not invulnerable to malware

by Kelly Hodgkins (Apr 19th, 2012)

The writing is on the wall. Our time of innocence is gone. Researchers from Kaspersky Labs claim Mac market share has finally reached the critical point, and the platform is now an attractive target for online criminals. Kaspersky told Ars Technica and other press on Thursday that, "Mac users ...

DevilRobber now "improved", still nasty malware threat

by Kelly Guimont (Nov 18th, 2011)

We previously told you about DevilRobber and what sort of unsavory things it can do to (and with) your Mac. (In case you don't click over to read the article, here's the scoop: it's bad. Real bad.) Back in the day (November 1st), it was a Trojan horse and sent a little of your personal info ...

Daily Mac App: ClamXav

by Samuel Gibbs (Aug 29th, 2011)

Antivirus on a Mac might be a touchy subject, but if you'd like the reassurance of a virus scanner that's not intrusive and can be called on-demand, then the free ClamXav is a great choice. While you may or may not need a virus scanner on a Mac, there's no harm in having one that you can run ...

Avast! Free Antivirus for Mac beta now available

by Steven Sande (Jun 1st, 2011)

Apple released Security Update 2011-003 yesterday with protection from the MacDefender malware and its variants, but some of our readers might want to do more to protect their Macs from malware. Avast has been a longtime supplier of a free (for non-commercial use) antivirus package for Windows ...

Sophos releases free Mac anti-virus package

by Richard Gaywood (Nov 2nd, 2010)

Security company Sophos has today released a free Home Edition of its Mac virus scanner suite. This is a timely move by Sophos to get an early foothold in what could become a significant market for aftermarket OS X security tools. While it's true that Macs have, until now, enjoyed a relatively ...

Scammers exploit Apple iPad fever

by Mike Schramm (Feb 1st, 2010)

And now we're at the point in the iPad cycle where there's just enough information out there about it that people are interested, but not enough that they can discern credible information from scammers. That's the report of the BBC, which says that "hi-tech" scammers are using iPad-based searches to ...

Ask TUAW: Auto-tagging music, iPhone VoIP apps, replacing a hard drive and more

by Mat Lu (Nov 11th, 2009)

Welcome back to Ask TUAW, our weekly troubleshooting Q&A column. This week we've got questions about VOIP apps on the iPhone, auto-tagging music, Boot Camp, replacing a hard drive and more. As always, your suggestions and questions are welcome. Leave your questions for next week in the comments ...

Malware detection coming in Snow Leopard?

by Michael Rose (Aug 25th, 2009)

We usually look at news updates and blog posts from antivirus vendor Intego with a bit of a gimlet eye, since the company has been known to spread a little bit of that good old FUD when it comes to the everyday risk of malware faced by most Mac users (that is to say, pretty much none). Today, ...

Apple removes antivirus-related KB page

by Robert Palmer (Dec 3rd, 2008)

According to Macworld, Apple removed a Knowledge Base article about antivirus software compatible with Mac OS X. The article received "a lot of attention" because it seemingly contradicted Apple's marketing messages about malware for Mac. Our own Michael Rose tried to take the kettle off the stove, ...

Apple updates antivirus version numbers, security savants lose grip on reality

by Michael Rose (Dec 2nd, 2008)

Update: The KB article referenced is now offline. You can see the archived version here. Update 2: On Tuesday evening, Apple told Macworld that the KB article was removed because it was outdated and inaccurate; Mac OS X includes adequate security protection out of the box. The BBC has also rolled ...

PC Tools iAntiVirus aims to be Mac specific

by Mat Lu (Jul 2nd, 2008)

With the recent trojan scare PC Tools' timing for the beta release of iAntiVirus for Mac could hardly be better. While there are a variety of anti-virus applications for the Mac, iAntiVirus seems to be especially designed to reduce resource usage by simply ignoring virus signatures for Windows. The ...