do we need anti virus, spy bots removers?

Soldato
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I personally have never ran any sort of that software on any of my personal macs, but in a hyrib/work enviroment Apple have started to suggest that we do to protect others machines on the network.

From experince, I have had it a few times where they have been infections on a mac; sitting there not doing anything to the machine itself, but it has spread to other machines/storages and causing them issues. mainly from people bringing "work" in from home.
 
Soldato
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Personally I have Sophos on one of my Macs, the one which is used for general things and browsing, but not on the one used as a Plex server or the one used as a HTPC, as that's all they are used for.

Can't say that having it has caused any "silly faults / kernel panics / random CPU hogging" at all.

Yes, I am sensible online etc but if prevents one issue (and I do run a mixtures of Macs and PCs here so the Mac could just act as a conduit) then that's fine for me.
 
Associate
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I wonder how many of the half a million+ Mac botnet victims were told "no" when they asked whether their Macs were vulnerable?

OP, you're not the first asker of this question to get a poor response from this forum, and unfortunately you won't be the last. Those who nonchalantly dismiss the idea out of hand aren't doing you any favours. A better answer is very much "it depends".

If you only boot your Mac up on a Sunday to download your photos and send a couple of emails then no, it's likely not necessary. On the other hand if your Mac has any sort of business-critical function, connects to any and all kinds of external media and/or public/unknown networks, and is used to open lots of unsolicited mail, then you're very much in the "maybe" camp in my opinion.

Is it a minimum requirement for Macs to be running some kind of third party antivirus? No, I wouldn't say so. Your best defence is a well-rounded approach - good online practises, keeping your software up-to-date, configuring your OS properly, backups etc.

You need to decide for yourself whether it's worth the additional overhead (whatever that may be) in your situation. I would avoid taking Apple-centric forum advice as canon because it's often entrenched in old ideas and based on little or no contextual detail and massive assumptions. Case in point: this thread. Nobody has even asked you what version of OSX you're running.

Similarly a lot of "Mac malware" information you can find on the web is too polarized to be useful (it's generally either a complete whitewash, or a security company inflating the threat to sell software)

Do your research, but with a critical eye.

this, a thousand times this.

Your usage habits are more important than what OS you're running but I'd always recommend getting something. I'd say for most home users the free options are fine - you may well get away with nothing but given it's very little effort to reduce the risk I'd always advise it.

OSX has security vulnerabilities, quite serious ones get found every so often (more often than you might think for all OSs and software). It remains less targeted than windows primarily due to historical market share and the number of un-patched, normally pirated, copies of windows out there that are a far easier target than any patched OS, windows or otherwise.
 
Soldato
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theheyes has it spot on.

OSX isn't usually targeted because there are still a lot more windows machines, and they are much more likely to be running out of date software, and malware authors know windows a lot better than they know any other operating system.

But the idea that Macs don't have malware, or are somehow inherently resistant is very wrong, and anti-virus is still a good idea.
 
Associate
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I don't at home but in my workplace we use a managed Kaspersky install which is policed via it's admin server.

It does find viruses but these are typically students USB pens that contain MS aimed viruses. I think for student lab computers and the like it's good to have. Updates are for Flash, OS etc are pushed out via Apple Remote Desktop.

At home I don't install Java on my Mac install and make sure it's up to date with patches etc. Main web browsing is done on my Windows box.
 
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Soldato
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I don't, but then my MBP lives behind firewalls and routers at home and in the office.

I do have the free AVG with comes with VMWare Fusion installed of the Bootcamp partition as I sometimes have to connect to client's LANs with it.
 
Associate
OP
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well, i will prob get a free anti virus just in case, as work computers as well as other peoples computer on the net work.. would rather be safe than sorry.. and yes i will be careful, o dodgy downloads :)
 
Soldato
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Lol I always have to laugh when people say you can't get a virus if you only stick to websites you know. I used to visit a RC helicopter forum (one of the big ones) and it was hijacked and infected with code that tried injection attacks against people visiting the forum - I tried to access the site and Avast on PC stopped the connection - I then read on another forum about that one being compromised and the AV saved me. There was also a recent case with one of the big news websites infecting people's machines as one of its adverts had been compromised and the advert was used as the source of the attack.

Then again, I suppose without AV you wouldn't know if you have a rootkit or keylogger installed so ignorance is bliss :) Not all trojans or viruses cause visible computer problems, the newer bot style ones hide away intentionally.
 
Soldato
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"The trap that many Mac users fall into is believing that because there are currently no known viruses targeting the Mac, it's safe from attack. In reality, the Mac OS, its included applications, and third-party applications have and will continue to have security issues that can allow some form of attack; it's just that the attack is not likely to be from a virus. But if something erases your data, you're not likely to care whether it was a virus or an attack launched through a web site; either way, your data is still gone.

Which brings us back to your original question, about using an anti-virus program on your Mac. The answer is yes, you should. Anti-virus programs don't just provide protection against known viruses; they also include anti-phishing, anti-adware, anti-spyware, and other tools that can keep your Mac from picking up debris as you browse the web." macs.about.com

Even Apple themselves suggest software to be used, but guess users no more sense than the people who actually make them.
 
Soldato
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You're seriously using about.com as a source? It's a content farm full of badly written, ill-researched internet noise. It's worse than Wikipedia...

I don't see Apple suggest AV software is used here : http://support.apple.com/kb/PH14109
or here : http://support.apple.com/kb/PH14365?viewlocale=en_US

As has been mentioned above, if it's a Corporate/Enterprise network then yes, install a managed AV solution. For home use, follow Apples advice.
 
Soldato
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You're seriously using about.com as a source? It's a content farm full of badly written, ill-researched internet noise. It's worse than Wikipedia...

I don't see Apple suggest AV software is used here : http://support.apple.com/kb/PH14109
or here : http://support.apple.com/kb/PH14365?viewlocale=en_US

As has been mentioned above, if it's a Corporate/Enterprise network then yes, install a managed AV solution. For home use, follow Apples advice.

Been on various websites, just noting it was a good point.
Feel safer - use it.
Take a risk - don't use it.
 
Soldato
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What you don't know can't hurt you?

Just because you haven't detected anything obvious doesn't mean that a machine hasn't been compromised.

Several researchers in big Universities who work for rather important Government military departments run 'Honeypots' - some of which have been Linux, Unix, OSX, Windows etc.

I believe Macs are less likely to suffer from malware due entirely to more users on the internet using Windows OSs, however they are still vulnerable from a small amount of malware, and also from direct attacks.

Remember that for some reason, OSX installs as standard without the firewall enabled too - many never change this as they've been misguided as to being 'untouchable' on the internet.

As Mac propagate more of society, so too will viruses and malware designed to target them.
 
Associate
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Kaspersky went public on this subject with regards to IOS but rings true for this too, apple is not infallible, it can have viruses and stuff written for it, people choose to write for other OS's because they are easier to attack, this does not mean it will not happen for apple, and once it does it will be like a doomsday kaboom, so remember prevention is better than the cure!
 

Deleted member 651465

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Deleted member 651465

I don't believe that line, anymore.

Yes, back in 2003 when the Mac was still in the minority, but these days there are a LOT more Macs about and with the popularity of the iPhone/iPad I just don't believe someone out there isn't working day and night to bring down Apple's reputation. The first Mac virus that causes significant issues on a significant percentage of the install base will be infamous.

Yes, install an anti-virus if you want, but it's no prevention against user stupidity.
 
Soldato
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What would people recommend as a free antivirus for mac? AVG, Avast?

I haven't run antivirus in about the 5-6 years I've owned Macs. But I do have to connect to workplace networks on a daily basis so should probably put a computer condom on.
 
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