[muglo] Re: Snow Leopard antivirus and security software?
- From: Andy Skuse <askuse@xxxxxx>
- To: muglo@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
- Date: Sun, 29 Nov 2009 23:21:51 -0500
On 2009-11-29, at 4:41 PM, Wayne Dobson wrote:
> If there are no viruses developed yet, what does the pricey software
> scan for? More suckers?
When customers ask me about antivirus software for their Mac I ask
them 1) if they have Boot Camp or Parallels installed, and 2) if they
ever forward any emails with attachments on to other friends who use
Windows.
Why?
1) If you use BootCamp or Parallels to run Windows on your Mac and you
connect to the internet while running Windows then you *must* have an
antivirus program (and anti-spyware program as well) installed because
quite simply, you are running the Windows operating system. Just
because you're running Windows on a Mac does not make the Windows side
immune.
2) As Mac users we may not be susceptible to the thousands of viruses
that plague the Windows world, but we can be carriers. If we receive
an email with an attachment that is infected with a virus and we
forward that email on to a friend who is using Windows and they then
open the attachment then their Windows computer could become infected.
This scenario plays out far more often with people who use their Macs
in a mixed Win/Mac office environment rather than home users, but as a
home user you should consider an antivirus program if you are
forwarding a lot of attachments to friends who use Windows.
As Paul mentioned the only virus so far to make any noise in the Mac
OS X world is a Trojan that disrupts your Mac's DNS settings. It's
pretty rare (I've only seen it 3 times in our shop since it appeared a
couple years back) because it almost always comes from downloading
questionable content from questionable sites and then opening the
attachment, something that most of us are smart enough to not do. But
if you are running Windows on your Mac the you should purchase an AV
program for Windows. Opinions are very mixed about Windows-based AV
programs. I still like Norton despite the fact that it slows your
computer down noticeably (it runs in the background) because Norton
has been around for many years and has a proven track record. McAfee
is another well-known name. Most of the other programs you may hear
about from friends such as Avira or AVG are often free downloads that
aren't feature complete, don't run in the background, don't check your
incoming email, or just aren't very effective. Be sure to read up
about the program and check what features it has. Also download an
anti-spyware program. Again, opinions vary widely on which programs
work the best, but we have seen the free version of the program
Malware Bytes (MBAM) work well for us in the shop. And if you forward
email attachments from your Mac e-mail program to friends who use
Windows then you should consider a Mac-based antivirus program that
runs in the background and checks your incoming mails for virus-
infected attachments. By far the most popular AV program for Mac is
Norton.
Andy
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