Keep your virus protection up to date

Microsoft Security Essentials is a great product.

Thanks for the reminder... Been thinking about getting the SSD. hm... 32gig... Going back to the old days of making sure your main drive is not full of stuff to make it run faster..

I understand that memory does go bad but I have never heard of a SSD "wearing out". This is usually a term for a mechanical drive, not a Solid State Drive since it has no moving parts.

bought a Macbook Pro on the weekend, viruses are a thing of the past

I have been a Mac user since 1988. You can get a virus if you download bad content. I did it once foolishly thinking I was getting a free movie.

Fluxuated

Mac Virus's and malware are on the rise and you can get a free version of PC Tools iAntivirus for Mac. No reason to take any chance especially since it's free to use for home.

PC Tools iAntivirus detects and removes Mac-specific malware only. This can be either very good or very bad, depending on your perspective. While a Mac-only focus keeps iAntivirus running lighter and faster than other Macintosh antivirus software, it also means a Mac user could inadvertently share files infected with Windows-based malware. Macro viruses, for example, aren't detected by iAntivirus - corporate users sharing Office documents between Windows and Mac users will want to make sure macro virus protection on both sides is enabled.

PC Tools iAntivirus is currently in beta, supports Intel-based Mac OS X v10.5 only, and is free for home (or home office) use. Corporate users can purchase a license for approximately $30 which includes free 24/7 tech support.

Read more:
http://antivirus.about.com/od/macintoshresource/fr/iantiviru...
or download:
http://www.iantivirus.com/download/

Just trying to helpful
Bob

A SSD doesn't "wear out" per say, but it does eventually go bad in a manner that makes one believe that its "wearing out". The 4k clusters in a SSD can only be written to so many times before they fail (can no longer be written to or can no longer retain data). Depending on how your drive is used, this could happen in a manner that is very noticeable; ie, little by little over a period of time you would notice that the drive is losing space because of bad clusters.

And both the classic Mac as well as the newer over priced PC component built, RedHat Linux derivative version of a Mac, are also prone to viruses. You just don't see them or hear about them that often because virus programmers target OSs that are more widely used for whatever purpose thier looking to get out of the system.

The main advantage of the Mac's operating system OS X is there are zero (yes that is correct) virus's for Macs out there. The OS is strong enough that virus's are something Mac users simply do not have to worry about.

Antivirus software for Mac's is really for people that are used to having virus's on MS Windows machines and are paranoid. However these products at a minimum are a total waste of money and tend to create more issues with for Mac users then they prevent.

I'm not trying to start a Mac vs. PC (each to their own) conversation. I'm simply trying to set the record straight that Mac users don't need to worry about virus's because not only are there none to worry about their OS is designed with very high security in mind.

Roger

Okay, so there are no viruses currently, but it is easy to misrepresent the truth beyond that. It's not exactly because the OS is so strong that it is not potentially vulnerable. Hackers have historically not written Mac viruses and that doesn't appear to be changing, but hacking/security conferences demonstrate existence of possible vulnerabilities. (One such example is the Pwn2Own Contest at CanSecWest where a hacker was able to take control in the matter of seconds after a link was clicked in Safari running on a fully patched Macbook Pro)

Trojans, such as those that install keyloggers are also a risk. Self-replication, self-installing viruses such as the Conflicker virus on Windows platforms seem to not be a risk and may never be.

Macs are secure, but some internet sense is important, especially if you frequent more questionable sites. Don't worry about installing antivirus software for the time being, but use your head. If for some reason the mac virus landscape changes, be prepared to install antivirus software. (If this becomes an issue, Apple will probably develop their own software and deliver it for free like Microsoft Security Essentials)

I agree. Microsoft Security Essentials is great. I replaced my McAfee Anti Virus and also some adware software for Microsoft's product. I have been using it for years. I have never gotten a Virus or Spyware using this product. And best of all, it is free. Just go to http://www.microsoft.com/security_essentials/default.aspx.

I've always felt that based on Microsoft's track record, using Microsoft and security together in the same sentence --> creates an oxymoron.

I had not heard about that free one from MS. Definitely looking into it. Thanks! I use McCaffee right now and no problems but I like things that are free....

I use Avira (free) Anti-Virus, ie:

http://www.free-av.com/

Have done so for years.. and haven't had a problem with a virus ever!

I also have and use LavaSoft (free) Ad-Aware, ie:

http://www.lavasoft.com/

to block ads being downloaded to my browser, as well as a (free) SpyWare Terminator, ie:

http://www.spywareterminator.com/

Using all three I find I'm pretty well safe to browse the web where ever I go.

Nuvi1300WTGPS

Thanks for the warning! I run malwarebytes, and Bit defender. Also Firefox with script control.

http://www.iantivirus.com/threats/
http://macscan.securemac.com/spyware-list/

No viruses, eh? And those are just the known ones.

And we can argue about semantics on what is considered a virus, trojan, worm, etc, etc. But I'm sure we can at least agree that these are for the most part, malicious programs being installed and run on a system either unknowingly or against the users wishes.

Yeah I am running it on my new drive - recommended by a buddy (IT guru) that said it was the only thing that stopped this latest run of virus's Macafe and Norton did NOT catch it (I am / was running Norton)

In case you don't know it already, Mac OS got compromised 3 years in a row in a security contest.

http://arstechnica.com/security/news/2010/03/ie8-safari4-fir...

http://arstechnica.com/apple/news/2010/04/apple-patches-pwn2...

I had the same problem. I have two PC's, one running MCafee and the other running Microsoft's software. McAfee found a spyware program but couldn't get rid of it. I loaded Microsoft's AntiVirus program onto the PC that had McAfee, it found it and removed it. I work in the IT profession as well and everyone I have talked to that runs the Microsoft product has never had a problem. There isn't a lot of bells and whistles with this free product, but it works great. It handles virus's, trojans, spyware, adaware, etc.

I used the free version of Malwarebytes' Anti-Malware, it's working great. I would recommended.
Free update too.

You may want to add it to the extensions as well. More and more malware is being served by ads.

https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/1865

Read this before you get to careless as to where you go:

http://antivirus.about.com/od/macintoshresource/Macintosh_Vi...

I also use a strong HOSTS file to keep me from accidentally getting to a "bad" website.

http://www.mvps.org/winhelp2002/hosts.htm

I had and will have Malwarebytes - great program but, it could not get rid of this rootkit. Found it and said it was gone but, it was in the registry and I could not even manually delete it. Also running adaware and spybot search and destroy - did not slow this rootkit down!

Clean for now

Crew!

Bummer. If I were you I'd flatten and rebuild (format/reinstall) the system. I will never trust my computer once it got rootkit infection even if MBAM or any other software scan result says it's clean.

Security essentials works well. Its presence on a machine is barely noticeable. Makes one wonder why Norton and McAfee have thousands of registry entries and not that efficient.

I purchased the pro version of Malwarebyte's Anti-Malware. It is a very great software. I use it with Kaspersky Internet Security together. It is better to security software with both firewall and antivirus functions rather than just antivirus.

McAfee antivirus program goes berserk, freezes PCs

http://www.physorg.com/news191081048.html

Yup..I was gonna post up about that..

But..at work we caught it before we distributed the DAT.
(We use orchestrator so we control the releases)

Mcafee has pulled the junk before. And frankly I'm getting tired of stuff like this. And..their scanning engines have gone from bad to worse.

I've been using Eset NOD32 for over a year now. Its far better than McAfee, and Norton. It doesn't use as much resources, and scans fast. Microsoft Security Essentials and Avira are also good. I wouldn't recommend AVG. I know a couple of people who keep their definitions up to date and still were infected with root kits while using AVG.