Osx & Virus Protection??? Options

[don says mac]

Just wondering who all uses 3rd party virus protection software... the two years i've have my mac i have had no protection and no viruses... am i just being naive? my only line of protection is having two hardrives: one as my boot/application drive and the other for all my music...

just looking to see what other people have...

.d.

[lepetitmartien]

Nope, but i'm using the ipfw firewall (OS X) and LittleSnitch.

There's been right now, a Trojan, a Worm and a ROOTkit (worm in the form of a shell script), the two first are suspiscious as for their origin, the third is no big deal, you must install it yourself with admin privileges.

So, for now, we're safe.

Now, If you use M$ Office, there's still the macro viruses around… But why use Office when you can use Open Office or less heavy apps? And with NO security problems…

Right now, antiviruses on OS X are just $$$ for editors.
But it may change one day!

[chappy]

I've been to data recovery several times ($$$$$$ and no fun)
Each time the tech assured me it was no virus because hackers only
wanted to 'kill Bill'. (his words)
Virus protection can interfere with DAW's so it's best to disconnect from the internet and turn off virus protection, energy saver's etc... expecially
in a pro environment.
peace,
chap

[Riverdog]

I've been running without virus protection since I first started using Macs...
As I've experienced it's very difficult to contract a virus on a Mac...
I have heard of some viruses and some new one that just came out...
I went to the McAffee sight and THEY with Macs stated the best thing to do was to keep your system updated with the auto updates directly from Apple...

I also downloaded the "Virus" scanner off of my .Mac account and run that occasionally... But, I've never seen a virus pop up...

I wouldn't be too worried... BUT - Keep your eyes peeled for more viruses and be wary... As the Mac gains market share - you may see more trouble brewing...

However, on a good note - the core being Unix - It's a very rock solid OS...

Enjoy...

[lepetitmartien]

(I'm going to repat myself a little…)

You can scan all you want to, there's none!

Now we have had viruses previously on pre-OS X systems, but most of them were "jokes" and less of a dozen really baddies. I've met only 3 times viruses on mac and they were benign (OS < 9). On OS X at this moment we have had case studies of a worm, and 2 trojans. the worm was a case study made to prove a security point, first trojan was suspiscious as for its origin (a guy on P2P downloading a fake Office installer of a few hundred KB telling a macworls journalist telling M$ and Intego…)(intego did also quite a job at the paranoia department for the worm). last trojan is a rootkit, that is a shell script, running in command line, that you must physically install with at least admin privileges… Not exactly what you'd call something spreading easily and really nasty (in fact is a common admin tool in Unix). No adware, no spyware.

So, keep an eye open, don't throw away $$$ right now, save if you're using Office (there's stlll the macro viruses around, ask M$) but you can use alternatives like Open Office (free and no macro virus).

But use your ipfw firewall! it's a good thing. (not for viruses, but for basic security regarding access to your computer). Don't log as root (usually you don't need to) especially if connected to the net. And don't give away your login/password as admin. Final.

[Synthetik]

I also have not ever found a virus or spyware on my macs. I do use Virex which is free to .Mac users, and Little Snitch. I think I use them mainly for peace of mind.

You will be fine with out, but considering the growth of OS X and the small size of these programs I think you will be just as well to get something.

But what ever you do, do NOT get Norton, it will cause more problems then running no protection

[chappy]

I would (respectfully) say, get Norton but disable the virus componant.
chap

[don says mac]

I appreciate all the ideas... I just wanted to get an idea of who's doing what... It looks like it's not too necessary (knock on wood) to get some virus protection...

How do I use my ipfw? Does it hinder performance?

[arvidtp]

You can scan all you want to, there's none! ...

...but you can use alternatives like Open Office (free and no macro virus).

My roomate's PC was just rendered completely in-operational by huge amounts of spyware it accumulated over the last months. So i said "there aren't even any of those for mac" and he says "the next computer I'm getting is gonna be a mac."

And - Yeah Openoffice! I want to say that it has gotten me through 1 1/2 years of Brown University so far, and still counting! It just works, and when i need a feature, it almost always seems to have it. Some say an ugly GUI? I say a word processor should be a serious word processor, not that silly thing that is M$ Word.

cheers

[iShawn]

One of the reasons why I decided to switch to Mac was because of the less-stressful virus, spyware, and trojan threat (Yes, being a musician when P2P came out I started using it. I was stupid. I decided to educate myself and do a project on it, and since then I haven't downloaded anything, therefore a virus, trojan, and spyware threat doesn't seem too great however I'll need Office for college projects and writing). I understand with time they might come along as more and more people are susceptable to it...but with a firewall and maybe some backup software (What do you recommend? I've heard great things about DiskWarrior) I am getting my 15" PB 1.5GHz 128MB Video RAM, maybe around 1.5GB RAM (Thinking of going the dealram.com route) with the faster 80GB harddrive (5400RPM) via Apple for the Christmas before college. But I'm thinking I'll need something extrernal to record to. Anyone have any experience with a great product for that?

I figure that's very optimized for the recording I'll be doing, and something that won't need constant upgrades for a while (at least during college). I also do some web design. But that wouldn't require much for it works on my laden-PC so I figure getting Studio MX for Mac won't be a problem.

I came here for the less problems I have had. I've had to completely reinstall Windows once and I've had to reinstall a few drivers as well (and drives for that matter) and I really don't want to do that...so I go with Mac and some of the back up software.

I read an article pertaining to the PB and getting max tracks out of it...I won't need hardly a fraction of those tracks but it is interesting. Can you configure which languages to install and stuff to provide more disk space and power even if you just got the PB? (I know when you reinstall Windows from the Windows disk you get the same thing, but I was wondering if I could do some of that article's tips without reinstalling Panther). On the subject of deletion. Is it harder to delete stuff in Mac? Or is it once you delete it from the harddrive that's it? Is there a Control Panel sort of thing for adding and removing programs/hardware? It seems like this is the stuff I really need to know.

But I was told by many accounts at AppleInsider.com NOT to use Norton anything. They said it's harder than Hades to uninstall it and it's worth all the CPU usage. Is this true? Is there an alternative. I've used Windows since I was raised on them (I am 17) in school, and not having antivirus at the least seems quite taboo!

P.S. Good News, since about a month ago I have all of my music on my Hard Drive and data CDs and buy music via iTunes. I love iTunes. Maybe I'll look into getting an iPod sometime. BTW: Can I burn copies of my DVDs to take to college if it comes with the DVD burner? (superdrive)

[ourmanflinty]

Who has seen mbdf a / b ?? It's the only mac virus i've ever come across, it can affect OS 9 or below and has been around since the early days.It will live in a program and spread into other pieces of your mac every time it's used, such as control panels, system, progs.. You can find it in old compressed archived music s/w, certainly if you get one of the cd's full of pirate OS9 s/w that used to go around you should be careful. I have been caught, very rarely though, once when upgrading from a 9600 to a g4 and having to uncompress an archive to re-install some components..a couple of launches later and you will freeze and then hang at startup with a bus error, restart button. Boot from a cd and re-install system and replace anything infected. You generally do not need to check for virii ( ? ) because there as a rule there arent any, but then once in a while you will get caught ( 3 or 4 times in 12 yrs or more of mac audio support with mbdf ). I don't know if there will be more now we're unix based, probably?

[Synthetik]

That really is the question, Will there be more?
I guess if you were to profile a virus coder they would most likely be an 18 to 28 year old male with some UNIX experence. At least the ones I have heard of or seen. So with a UNIX base and a growning number of Mac users there soon could be more then the 1 virus that will hit more then 3 to 4 times in a 12 year period. I quess it's not in our best interest to ask a virus coder if they have made anything for a Mac yet.

[lepetitmartien]

mbdf is peanuts

If you're running pre OS X Mac OS and go though old files, get Disinfectant, it's free, and it just work for the OS viruses. It won't be of use for macro viruses though.

It's more than enough for common use.

On OS X we can't say "there will never be one", but it'll need at least some skills. I counsel people to read the guidelines for security published By The NSA, there's a lot of common sense hints and things. You can start for there, there's a lot of good things in it (that's the paranoid manual on OS X, you'll learn much from it).

don says mac, for ipfw, the Apple's interface is in the system preferences/Sharing/firewall. There's settings for common uses, only authorize the ones you need. And in the preferences/security check "deactivate the automatic session opening" and "password required to access the secured system preferences". it's just common sense

And DO NOT ACTIVATE YOUR ROOT ACCOUNT! (check the NSA document for full how-to/reversal). only if you know what you are doing should you activate it. but 99,99% of users just don't. In case, use SUDO instead in command line.

ishwan, I'll come back to address some of your questions, I just need to go to sleep… (5:40 m in Paris