Mac Security Software

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What is the present thinking on whether Mac's really need security software like Norton, McAfee, etc. One of my local Apple Store representative said that he did not use any commercial software but ran ClamX occasionally. I did that until I upgraded to Snow Leopard. ClamX doesn't work on Snow Leopard. Any thoughts?
 
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...and even if you're on a PC, don't touch McAfee or Norton with a smelly stick.
 
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G'day and welcome to thye forums.

This no AV for Macs is something switchers find very hard to accept after years of problems with Windows.

More harm than good AV software. Have a read of this, even if it is a couple of years old now, nothing has changed as there are still no Mac OS X viruses:-


Mac OS X anti-virus software: More trouble than it's worth? | MacFixIt - CNET Reviews

As there are no Mac OS X viruses, all you do is pay to download Windows virus definitions which cannot execute on the Unix platform.
 
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good info in this thread as I had wondered the same.. I had to be quite wary of this on my Windows desktop and ran Avast! and Malwarebytes.. good to know these will be a thing of the past..
 
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...and even if you're on a PC, don't touch McAfee or Norton with a smelly stick.

Have you even tried the current Norton Internet Security on the PC or Mac? It works great on both. Do a little research before making ridiculous comments. It doesn't help anyone.

As far as security software for Mac, I am new to the Mac and there are other things besides viruses that can attack your computer. Don't fall into the trap of "Gee, I have a Mac. Nothing can happen to me or my computer."
 
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Yes JBob 2 and what Mac do you own and what version NAV?

Thought not.
 
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Sorry, just added my computer specs. to my profile. However, I have a new Macbook Pro 15". I am currently using the most current version of Norton Internet Security for Mac.

Think again!
 
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Have you even tried the current Norton Internet Security on the PC or Mac? It works great on both. Do a little research before making ridiculous comments. It doesn't help anyone.

As far as security software for Mac, I am new to the Mac and there are other things besides viruses that can attack your computer. Don't fall into the trap of "Gee, I have a Mac. Nothing can happen to me or my computer."

Thanks for the laugh! Anyone who installs Norton anything for any reason just wants an unnecessarily slow, bloated computer. Same goes for Macafee.

What other "things" can attack your Mac? Only Trojans that work on a Mac come from downloading illegal software or installing video codecs on porn sites. If you get one of those Trojans, no one here will feel sorry for you. Dig in the trash and expect to find garbage.
 
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Have you even tried the current Norton Internet Security on the PC or Mac? It works great on both. Do a little research before making ridiculous comments. It doesn't help anyone.

Yes, I have. And have come to the conclusion that Norton is a virus in itself: it takes over the PC and runs scans in the background if not all the time, at the worst moments. It slows the machine down as if it were an 800-lbs passed-out gorilla and it's impossible to disable, which you have to do for some software maintenance operations. I have worked on lots of machines with Norton installed (any version) and have found them all to be slow performers, sometimes slow to the point of being unusable. McLafee is pretty much the same: less intrusive than Norton, but still slows down the machine and interferes with some operations, and, again, it's not possible to disable other than by killing its process -which in Windows, lacking a console and a kill -9 command, it's sometimes very difficult, as processes will restart themselves as soon as they're terminated.
 
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Yes, I have. And have come to the conclusion that Norton is a virus in itself:

So true and consider ~ why pay to download PC virus definitions on to a Mac computer when the Unix operating system will not allow PC viruses to spawn? There are mo Mac OS X viruses so no definitions are available.
 
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Have you even tried the current Norton Internet Security on the PC or Mac? It works great on both. Do a little research before making ridiculous comments. It doesn't help anyone.

On the Mac, it's completely unnecessary, so I am not even going to rise to that. On the PC, Norton is widely agreed to be buggy, a resource hog and in some cases as difficult to remove from your system as a virus itself - not to mention needlessly expensive. MacAfee is just a joke.

Norton corporate/enterprise is actually quite a lot better - I have it on my office PC (I have no choice) and it's fairly unobtrusive. But the home version is a pain, especially if you're a gamer or a tinkerer. There are far better solutions.

As for your snide comment, it got a negative rep from me (I don't do anonymous). I think my comment WAS helpful, and I generally try to add value to this forum in any way I can. 30+ years of experience with computers helps in that regard - the reason I didn't go into a bunch of better PC solutions, is because this is not a PC forum - however I'd recommend these ahead of either Norton or MacAfee:

- Windows Defender (it's free, and no one has more interest in keeping your system safe than Microsoft)
- Kaspersky (low price, small footprint. This is the one you want on your VM or low powered machine)
- Bit Defender (never bothers you, easy to install or remove, attacks malware, very affordable)
- AVG (free version, actually pretty good although slightly clunky interface)

Cheers.
 

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On the Mac, it's completely unnecessary, so I am not even going to rise to that. On the PC, Norton is widely agreed to be buggy, a resource hog and in some cases as difficult to remove from your system as a virus itself - not to mention needlessly expensive. MacAfee is just a joke.

Norton corporate/enterprise is actually quite a lot better - I have it on my office PC (I have no choice) and it's fairly unobtrusive. But the home version is a pain, especially if you're a gamer or a tinkerer. There are far better solutions.

As for your snide comment, it got a negative rep from me (I don't do anonymous). I think my comment WAS helpful, and I generally try to add value to this forum in any way I can. 30+ years of experience with computers helps in that regard - the reason I didn't go into a bunch of better PC solutions, is because this is not a PC forum - however I'd recommend these ahead of either Norton or MacAfee:

- Windows Defender (it's free, and no one has more interest in keeping your system safe than Microsoft)
- Kaspersky (low price, small footprint. This is the one you want on your VM or low powered machine)
- Bit Defender (never bothers you, easy to install or remove, attacks malware, very affordable)
- AVG (free version, actually pretty good although slightly clunky interface)

Cheers.

+1

I would never advise anyone (well, not anyone I like) use Norton or McAfee. I haven't met anyone that works in the tech support side of the industry in at least 10 years that would recommend Norton to anyone except their worst enemies. (Have the corporate McAfee here - no choice - I finally convinced the owner to get a good hardware firewall solution a couple of weeks ago and disable the totally unreliable McAfee one. If one machine told McAfee not to allow java or Adobe reader or any number of other things to access the internet, it would take down our entire local network - and what a pitr trying to troubleshoot the thing.)

and to add a few more very good pieces of windows software:

- MSE (Microsoft Security Essentials: free and actually a quite good, low overhead a/v)
- avast (another free a/v, and preferred over AVG by a great many of us that use to use AVG exclusively)
- nod32 (not free, but for those that feel compelled to pay money for protection, this is another excellent piece of a/v software)
 
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+1 on nod32, completely forgot about that one. Also MSE is much better than Defender, Defender doesn't actually have an AV.
 
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Ya, Defender is aimed at malware, it's the competition of MBAM.

MSE is what I've been using lately (switched my PCs to it from AVG and Avast). M$ really surprised and impressed me with it. I've been putting it on some of the machines that come to the shop for repairs and have been pleased -and I suspect the customers too, since no one has complained yet. Point in fact, Touch, the company whose systems we sell, have started loading it by default on each of their brand new PCs.
 
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Thanks for the laugh! Anyone who installs Norton anything for any reason just wants an unnecessarily slow, bloated computer. Same goes for Macafee.

What other "things" can attack your Mac? Only Trojans that work on a Mac come from downloading illegal software or installing video codecs on porn sites. If you get one of those Trojans, no one here will feel sorry for you. Dig in the trash and expect to find garbage.

You couldn't possibly have tried the latest version of Norton. At least for me, it hasn't slowed my computer one bit. It is efficient and transparent.

As far as other "things", I don't really know. But malware writers are constantly working on new "things" and I like level of comfort provided by a security app.
 
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I'll take your word for it on the latest Norton, but their reputation has been going downhill since Symantec bought it years ago so it would really have to be pretty impressive to convince most Mac users it's not stealing resources.

As for "new things": if you understood UNIX and Mac OS X a bit better, you'd understand why there is virtually no chance of there ever being a virus for the Mac.
 
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You couldn't possibly have tried the latest version of Norton. At least for me, it hasn't slowed my computer one bit. It is efficient and transparent.

As far as other "things", I don't really know. But malware writers are constantly working on new "things" and I like level of comfort provided by a security app.
I give 3 more weeks until it takes over your computer.
 
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You couldn't possibly have tried the latest version of Norton. At least for me, it hasn't slowed my computer one bit. It is efficient and transparent.

Maybe you're using the corporate version? Symantec corporate is decent and NAV Corporate runs fast, doesn't take over the machine and stays out of your way. Not so with the mainstream version.

And no, I haven't tried it myself (Heaven forbid!) but my input doesn't come from reviews or hearsay: I have seen NAV's effects on systems and have spent time removing that garbage antivirus from them, which isn't always easy (when Symantec itself provides a "Norton Removal Tool" to get rid of it, you can have an idea of how bad they know their own product is).
 
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