Mac 2009 Security Analysis

[Steve]

This analysis is written by Intego an AV software manufacturer but interesting nevertheless

http://www.intego.com/news/the-year-in-mac-security-2009.pdf

[Tacitus]

Interesting read.  It seems the majority (not all) of the exploits require user interaction, so the majority of Mac users should be safe.  TBH if you download pirate software from torrent sites you're asking for trouble, but that's just my opinion 

I used Virus Barrier for a time since it was a condition of access to the Uni VPN that AV was installed, even on Macs.  Of all the Mac AV programs it seemed to be far less trouble, didn't hog resources and, just worked; or presumably it did, since it never found anything.  Certainly it was the only one I would have recommended for Macs. 

The recent update though, now includes a firewall which I don't want - DoorStop X is good if you need an additional firewall - but worse, if you don't update the subscription the whole show simply stops working, firewall and all.  In the past the AV would continue but you didn't get the updates, which was fair enough.

ClamX is free and OK, but dog slow in my experience.

[Gary]

Eset  have one in Beta, I think I'll put that on my machine when its out, its getting to the point where not using one is going to be hard to justify, but since OSX can be buggy with some AV's I do worry. X6 looks to be a bloated monster from hell, reviews are mixed, Kaspersky have an AV product but in my view I would not let Kaspersky near a PC let alone a Mac these days, to many bugs and issues seen on the forum for that one. Clam can take an age to scan, and is ok ish and you have PCTools iAntivirus as well which I believe is solely for Mac based malware.