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ClamAVX actually doesn't protect your Mac from viruses. It protects Windows machines that you might send files to.  It will locate and isolate an infected file so you don't pass it on. Macs can be carriers, they aren't vulnerable to the Windows specific virii.

snewbie69 wrote:

I have recently moved from PC to Mac.  I'm so used to running spybot, adaware, etc. on the old PC.

You forgot AVG, CCleaner, Disk Defrag, .... The routine will make you wonder what there is to "fix" on the Mac, but you'll find out there isn't much. And that's what's great about it.

thanks for the suggestion to run disk utility.  could you please  give me a few pointers on how to do this?  thanks!

Using Disk Utility to repair permissions is also one of the first steps you should do whenever you do run into weird behavior such as a program which will not open properly.

jgcampos' suggestion on restarting your Mac every now and again is a good idea for ANY computer--not just Macs--because of memory "loss" due to programs not properly freeing memory when they are done with it.

You can use the built in firewall program on your Mac. It's part of the setup that you can utilize. That The basic firewall configuration will shut it down tight for your basic purposes. If you have a router between your internet connection and your computer you can use its firewall instead.

They really need to make a viable AV for mac thogh, right now were skatingby because "no one cares" but as Justin Long keep doing his thing the hackers of the world are going to wake up, go "hey wait MAc are actually useful now?" and then BLAM, youve just be raped in the ass by 3,000 vir that you have no protection against.

Metacell wrote:

Nekollx wrote:

They really need to make a viable AV for mac thogh, right now were skatingby because "no one cares" but as Justin Long keep doing his thing the hackers of the world are going to wake up, go "hey wait MAc are actually useful now?" and then BLAM, youve just be raped in the ass by 3,000 vir that you have no protection against.

It's not just because "no one cares", it's because OS X is a UNIX system which was designed from the beginning as a multi-user system with a high priority on security and privacy.  Basically, it has 40 years of dealing with code-crackers behind it.  That doesn't mean its impossible to write a virus for it, it just means a great deal more knowledge and code skill is required.

Somehow if a 18 year old kick can crack the national defense departmsnts computers a MAc isn't goign to be tooo hard.

Will it be easy? Actually yes. Very

At the anual Pwn to Own competition from this year a Mac Book air was hacked for full control though safari using a glitch discovered the previous year.

Once hackers get serioes about the mac we are so forked

Nekollx wrote:

At the anual Pwn to Own competition from this year a Mac Book air was hacked for full control though safari using a glitch discovered the previous year.

Once hackers get serioes about the mac we are so forked

It's not just any ol' glitch.  The rules of the competition allowed the hacker to instruct the user to visit a particular website specifically designed to leverage this bug (since patched).  In the real world, browser bugs come and go.  They're generally not around long enough to catch the attention of hackers.  From the hacker's perspective, by the time you've developed a practical threat with a significant payload, the bug will likely have been patched, and your effort for naught.

In any event, if it's a great concern, just switch to FireFox, as they tend to patch bugs faster than Apple.

Nekollx wrote:

Metacell wrote:

Nekollx wrote:

They really need to make a viable AV for mac thogh, right now were skatingby because "no one cares" but as Justin Long keep doing his thing the hackers of the world are going to wake up, go "hey wait MAc are actually useful now?" and then BLAM, youve just be raped in the ass by 3,000 vir that you have no protection against.

It's not just because "no one cares", it's because OS X is a UNIX system which was designed from the beginning as a multi-user system with a high priority on security and privacy.  Basically, it has 40 years of dealing with code-crackers behind it.  That doesn't mean its impossible to write a virus for it, it just means a great deal more knowledge and code skill is required.

Somehow if a 18 year old kick can crack the national defense departmsnts computers a MAc isn't goign to be tooo hard.

Will it be easy? Actually yes. Very

At the anual Pwn to Own competition from this year a Mac Book air was hacked for full control though safari using a glitch discovered the previous year.

Once hackers get serioes about the mac we are so forked

People have tried. And failed. UNIX is secure. And has been designed to be secure since the beginning. Windows wasn't. Windows was designed from the start with more security holes than a block of swiss cheese at the White House mainly because it wasn't originally designed to be open to the world wide network. UNIX has always been a networking system first and thus was designed to not let things in that shouldn't be in. Permissions and all that stuff are very strict. When MS designed Windows they didn't think about how vulnerable it would be when it is eventually exposed to the world.

That Air was only hacked because of a hole in Safari (A new browser), not the OS. And it was closed very quickly. It doesn't count because for one thing, the person on the receiving end would have to be running Safari for one thing.

Hackers won't be able to get in if you keep the right ports closed.

They won't be able to get you to run a spyware program unless you yourself are stupid enough to actually click "Yes, let this program that I downloaded unknowingly and never heard of run because there's no way it could be a virus."

Also, a large majority of the problems with Windows are in Internet Explorer. If you run another browser and are careful, you can actually avoid a lot of them. It's all because people are careless with their browsing. And sites sometimes have viruses that they themselves don't know about.

People don't attack Windows because it's the most popular. They attack it BECAUSE IT IS SO FREAKING EASY TO CRACK. Microsoft made it extremely easy to get into because they never planned ahead. Now they're up to their necks in problems they can't close them fast enough because they keep making new ones as they go.

I dare, dare any virus programmer out there to get a real VIABLE virus onto OS X. But it must be stealth. It must not alert you to its presence until it has already done its damage. It must not ask you to install it. It must be 100% unknown to the end user. It won't happen though, because OS X does not work the same way Windows does.

Also, in order for ANYTHING to do damage to your system, you HAVE TO ENTER A PASSWORD. And if you knowingly enter your password for something that requests it that you don't remember asking for, then you deserve whatever happens. A good program will tell you about what it is going to do first, then tell you why it needs a password.

You see, the main thing keeping virii and trojans from working here is the end user and their brains. OS X tells you when something you launch was downloaded. And it asks you when something wants a password to access permissions protected files. If you don't enter the password, or you don't click Yes, then the virus fails. Flat on its face.

Also, one last thing, anything running would have to be shown in here:

Anything that looks out of place can be Googled. If it is a known trojan, or something you don't want, people on the internet will have talked about it.

An online scanner? Do those even work well? When I scan, it goes blank and a milisecond later it says "Scan done! Nothing found!" For both options.

Which I already knew. But somehow it went that fast? On a 500GB with 400+GB used? Somehow I don't think this is really doing anything. Nothing can scan 620,000 files and folders (Yes) in less than 1/16th of a second. I would download the trial, but I know that I have nothing on here and I really don't want to have to deal with ripping the program out later as I assume it sticks files all over the HD in places I won't look.

Guess I'm not paranoid.

When viruses do start popping up, I will gladly get a virus program, (But I think a virus protector should be FREE and INCLUDED as PART of the OPERATING SYSTEM) but until then...

Seriously though, virus software is just a band-aid.. sorry, an adhesive bandage.. to cover up a problem created by lazy or oversightful programmers (Mistakes happen. Things are missed. It happens.) and should legally be required to be part of the system out of the box with free updates. Viruses aren't documents created by people that you will need a specific office program or painting program to view, they're exploits that can either screw things up or destroy entire systems out of malice or "fun". If the holes can't be closed before shipping, the software to stand by the doors like a bouncer at a bar should be part of the package.

There's no reason companies like McAffee and Norton should exist. They should have never been created because the guys creating the OS should have included this stuff from the start.