At 6:04 PM -0700 4/10/2012, Al Poulin wrote:
In view of the Flashback trojan, is now the time for average home
and student users to install an anti-virus package? I notice that
there are two free pachages, ClamXav 2 and Sophos Anti-Virus for Mac
Home Edition. ClamXav 2 is donationware and the Sophos seems to be a
total freebie. Does one have particular advantages over the other?
We've covered this a number of times over the past year on the
various LEM lists.
ClamXav and Sophos are our two favs.
Currently, I prefer Clam. It seems less intrusive.
(Yes, both have a full set of definitions to catch all the Flashback variants).
But keep in mind...
1. All these AV products work by sniffing at files as they're
dropped onto the HD. If the browser keeps the object in memory - eg:
a tiny cached java object, no AV will see it. So just because you
have an AV installed doesn't mean you're actually protected.
2. No AV catches things for which it doesn't already have
definitions. So just because you have an AV installed doesn't mean
you're actually protected, even if you just updated it!
3. Even tho there are a few trojans out there that target OS X, the
majority of malware still targets Windoze. So the main reason for
using an AV on your Mac is to identify Windoze malwarez so you don't
pass them on to a "friend" that uses Windoze.
4. Right now, the primary vectors for OS X-targetting malware are
Flash, Java, and MS Office. So glove up and pay attention. Crush
Flash. Kill Java. Destroy MS Office. Then date the sexy robot.
HTH,
- Dan.
--
- Psychoceramic Emeritus; South Jersey, USA, Earth.
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