Any ideas on a good Malware Scanner for Mac? Please.?

Question

I know that malware is rare on Macs, but I still would like to have an on-demand scanner, if for no other reason than to bring me peace of mind. I would like one that also scans for windows malware just to be safe.

Do you have any ideas on good malware scanners?

I have tried:
ClamXav from Mac App Store (upon research I found that ClamXav has poor detection rates)
Virus Barrier from the Mac App Store (but it has very poor ratings)
Bitdefender form the Mac App Store (but I heard that it was new and unproven on Mac OSX)
iAntivirus form Mac App Store (its definitions are never updated, so its out)
Avast for Mac (I heard that it doesn't scan for Windows Malware, plus it runs constantly so it slows my system)

I don't know if the negatives above are true, they are just what I have heard. Any feedback?

Thank you
JAC

Answer 1

Apple included Flash pre-installed with OS 10.6 and earlier. Lion has no Flash Player plugin, but the upgrade to Lion does not erase Flash that was already there in Snow Leopard. Apple thinks Adobe is lax about Flash, and it is open to malware. Apple are correct, but until the PC geeks decide to accept HTML5, we are stuck with Flash for may sites.



You do not have any viruses to think about as of now, because the OS is extremely well-protected from them, but a few Trojans are out there, and it's up to you to accidentally install one (password is required, and the Trojan cannot guess your password). All the free Mac anti-virus apps are updated about the same day as the news of a new Trojan breaks, and all can block or remove Trojans. Even Apple provides this in their security updates unless you turn off the automatic updates. I have used five different Mac anti-virus apps, and I like iAntivirus best. It is about ten times as fast as Sophos, and doesn't slow things down. I never know it is scanning until it pops up the window to report the results.



@Greeyolddave:

Sorry, but you are wrong. It is not merely that there are fewer Mac computers that accounts for no known OS X viruses. Think about this for a moment: If there are already a million known viruses for Windows, but no known viruses for OS X, and you were an attention-starved teenage bad guy, wouldn't you be trying like mad to get headlines by making an OS X virus? You can be sure they are trying their best. OS X has several layers of built-in protection that keep the system files unharmed. This is true also for Linux. It is not true for Windows, and the results are obvious. If there were any real relationship between the number of viruses for a system type and the market share, we would have this ratio of viruses for Linux, OS X, and Windows: 1 / 9 / 99, because there are 9 times as many OS X system in use as Linux, and there are 11 times as many Windows systems in use as OS X. In fact, the real ratio of viruses is 0 / 0 / 1,000,000. The math has failed for these PC geeks who hate Apple.

Answer 2

2

Answer 3

I have used Norton for the PC for most of 20 years. No bad guy has ever gotten in. That is available for the Mac.

The main reason that Mac viruses are rare is that Macs are rare. The bad guys generally don't want to bother learning a new OS with such a small market, but there are some out there.

Answer 4

"Is it attainable to make those malwares unable to hack my proxy settings and what no longer with out shopping for virus scanners for my laptop." convinced. dump domicile windows except you want complications and insecure platforms and use Linux. otherwise get some AV protection and Anti malware classes and earnings from the hell out of the down time.

Answer 5

Both of these programs were created for Mac's. Choose one:



http://www.sophos.com/en-us/products/free-tools/sophos-antivirus-for-mac-home-edition.aspx



http://www.clamxav.com/