Mac OSX Anti-Virus/Anti-Spyware

[Night Black]

Alright, the day has come for me to cross over to the dark side. Now, I'm wondering, given that Macs are becoming a larger source of attention if I should really run an AV program. I've seen a few programs for that purpose, but reportedly they're not the best around. At the same time, I'm not a guy to dive into anything unprotected.

So is it advisable to run an AV program on a mac?

 

[swatbat]

As of right now it is not something to really worry about. In the future who knows?

 

[DragonNOA1]

I've asked this before and have been told to not worry about it. It's weird for us Windows guys to start using a system with no antivirus or spyware protection but that's just the way it is for Macs at this point in time.

 

[Night Black]

I've asked this before and have been told to not worry about it. It's weird for us Windows guys to start using a system with no antivirus or spyware protection but that's just the way it is for Macs at this point in time.

Alright. BTW, how good is the built in firewall? I know that's necessary, given I'm gonna use Wi-Fi all the time, but is it good, or like the Windows Firewall in XP?

 

[Grentz]

No reason to put yourself out there without protection. Dont be a fool, wrap your, well...tool!

Also there is the fact of passing on viruses:
http://aroundcny.com/Technofile/texts/mac070203.html

This one does not look too bad to do quick simple scans of things (and its free):
http://www.clamxav.com/


The scary thing that I fear will happen some day is some exploit is going to be found, a virus will be made, and all the OSX users who think they are so protected will all of a sudden be looking face to face with a virus in control of their machine.

 

[swatbat]

Back in the days of os 9 apple had included a trial of some shitty antivirus software on the macs. It was funny because it didn't work. We took 80 or so mac virus files(everyone we could find) and scanned the disk. Came up clear.


Anyway the clam av thing is not a bad idea. It is more for scanning for windows virus files though so you don't forward them to someone elce or so you don't infect your windows partition on the apple if you dual boot.