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no it is not.

While the Mac OS might be immune, there is a possibility to be a "carrier" via infected files.
Let's accommodate the poor souls of the dark side.

Basil wrote:

While the Mac OS might be immune, there is a possibility to be a "carrier" via infected files.
Let's accommodate the poor souls of the dark side.

Not immune, just not something anybody's bothered to do in a big way. Yet.

Intego Virus Barrier seems to be a highly respected Mac Antivirus.  I use it on all my Macs and recommend it to my customers.  It is a bit pricey, but you know… you get what you pay for.

hasbeen wrote:

I use iAntivirus. It keeps a current library of threats and the basic version is free.

If you download it, disable the automatic features and do it manually to prevent it from running in the background because as everyone has said "not a bad idea but unnecessary"

Be mindful that iAntivirus does not (as of two months ago when last checked) find and disinfect MS Word Macro Viruses. Not a major problem, but I have a few clients that have been infected by the W.97 Thus virus lately (an old Word 97 virus) that doesn't really do any harm. The only 'harm' that it had done was prevent emails with infected Office:mac Word 2004 files being attached to email from ending up in the recipient's Inbox (Google Apps, Gmail and many corp. mail servers outright reject the email). If client doesn't get email, client gets mad. It's a PITA.

That's all.

The lack of infection isn't due to any inherent security on the part of Unix or Apple.  It's due to the fact that viruses are meant to target the largest share of internet users, and that share is solidly in the PC market.  the moment Apple has an equivalent to larger market share, you're going to find yourself infected more often, with rootkits at that.  Just look what happened to jailbroken iPhones recently.

Last edited by Jokotai (2009-11-02 11:34 pm)

macnuke wrote:

WyoMacTech wrote:

Intego Virus Barrier seems to be a highly respected Mac Antivirus.  I use it on all my Macs and recommend it to my customers.  It is a bit pricey, but you know… you get what you pay for.

you do NOT get what you pay for.

it uses hard drive space.
it uses RAM space.
it uses CPU resources.

to protect you against nothing.

when a valid Mac OS virus is born and let loose in the wild, the world will know it.
go buy one that will protect you against it.
until then, you can send me the money you would have paid for AV and you get two benefits........
I get more money and your Mac isn't loosing resources.
it will really do just as good and best of all it takes money from the fear mongers citing "THREAT" to the Mac community and taking money from the people that have AV NEEDED ingrained from using Windows.

"highly respected"?

To me, until the market and hacker attitudes change, antivirus software for Mac is a cash grab, sold to the uninformed and those in desperate need of a security blanket.

Want a bit of fun? (I take no responsibility). I spent some time visiting some of these sites earlier this year, wondering what kind of baddies I'd come across. I told Firefox "No, don't 'Get me out of here'", and I was disappointed. I didn't catch anything.

I should have loaded up WinXP on VMWare for a side-by-side malware death match....I think Leopard would have won.