Apple Recommends the Use of Antivirus Utilities
In a brief online statement posted in the Support section of the Apple web site, Apple now recommends the use of antivirus applications on all of its Mac products.
Apple goes on to recommend three specific antivirus applications: Intego VirusBarrier X5, Symantec Norton AntiVirus 11 for Macintosh, and McAfee VirusScan for Mac.
This may come as a shock to some longtime Mac users, who for years have touted the Mac’s perceived invulnerability to viruses as one of the defining differences between the Mac and that other operating system.
In reality, the Mac OS is still one of the most secure OSes available for consumer and business use. But the security business and the threats have changed. Today the most often-cited security threats don’t come from a virus but from phishing, in the form of email, web sites, or applications that try to convince you to divulge personal information. Also rampant are Trojan horses, which try to trick you into installing an application that will perform some type of unexpected action, ranging from flashing benign jokes to opening up your computer to remote manipulation by others.
Although the above mentioned security applications have the word ‘virus’ in their names, they also offer protection against a wide range of threats, including phishing, Trojans, and other assorted malware. So it makes sense for Apple to recommend their use.
What’s a little disappointing is that all of the products Apple mentions are for-fee services that require yearly subscriptions. Apple didn’t mention any of the free services, such as ClamXav or iAntiVirus.
Mary Landesman, About’s Guide to Antivirus Software, has some excellent recommendations for Mac-based antivirus applications. Be sure to check out her Mac Antivirus Software Reviews: The Best and Worse of Mac Antivirus Software. It’s a good read.
Comments
Can’t find link at Apple for “brief statement” re recommendation to use virus detection software. Did they take it away?
I believe it is a cover your behind statement from Apple as several discussion groups have surmised. I would only consider obtaining an anti virus app if I was running Windows on my Mac and that is never going to happen!
Apple removes antivirus-related KB page
by Robert Palmer on Dec 3rd 2008 at 10:20AM
According to Macworld, Apple removed a Knowledge Base article about antivirus software compatible with Mac OS X.
The article received “a lot of attention” because it seemingly contradicted Apple’s marketing messages about malware for Mac. Our own Michael Rose tried to take the kettle off the stove, noting that the article had been around for years before the Washington Post noticed it this week.
Macworld’s Jim Dalrymple spoke with Apple spokesman Bill Evans, who said “We have removed the Knowledge Base article because it was old and inaccurate. The Mac is designed with built-in technologies that provide protection against malicious software and security threats right out of the box.”
Even so, Evans admitted, “Since no system can be 100% immune from every threat, running anti-virus software may offer additional protection.”
According to this Article, you really do not have to do that.
Aricle Tile:Apple’s antivirus advice ‘big to-do about nothing,’ says researcher
Even noted exploit-finder Charlie Miller doesn’t bother protecting his Macs
By Gregg Keizer
http://www.computerworld.com/action/article.do?command=viewArticleBasic&articleId=9122120&source=NLT_PM&nlid=8
Seems like your blog is behind times….the post you refer to is an old and has also been removed because it doesn’t apply
The post you refer too is an old one and has also been removed by Apple since it’s out of date and really doesnt apply
As PC users are discovering virus/spyware writers have recently taken their skills to a new level, which makes antimalware software close to irrelevant. After stealthily getting on to your machine via email attachment or popup claiming your machine is infected or clicking around underworld sites, they promptly disable antivirus and antispyware programs, software firewalls and generic uninstallers, such as found in Control Panels.
The real solution is being alert to entry points and avoiding them and making at least 2 bootable clones on external drives. This has recently become very cheap and easy, especially with CarbonCopyCloner and SuperDuper!
Then if you do get hit, you just Restore using Disk Utility.
Read this: http://gizmodo.com/5101450/do-you-think-mac-os-x-needs-anti+virus-software
Hi Roger,
Apple took the support statement down this morning. It essentially said that Apple encouraged the use of multiple antivirus or security applications to protect your Mac.
Tom
Hi Gary,
The original support document I and many others were referring to was originally posted some time during the last year. However, it was updated by Apple in mid-November, and again on December 2 (yesterday). The two recent updates were what brought the article to the attention of many Mac technology sites.
What is more interesting is why the article was removed after it was recently updated. I don’t buy Apple spokesman Bill Evans’ statement:
“We have removed the Knowledge Base article because it was old and inaccurate.”
The article was updated twice in the past couple of weeks, so it could hardly be considered outdated. I assume it was updated to address any inaccuracies that may have existed in the original document. And even if you choose to accept Bill’s reasoning, you have to wonder: What has changed in OS X since the document was posted?
The answer, as far as I know, is that nothing fundamental has changed. Aside from Safari acquiring anti-phishing capabilities recently, the core services of OS X are fundamentally the same today as they were when the article was originally posted. I do agree with Bill Evans that “…The Mac is designed with built-in technologies that provide protection against malicious software and security threats right out of the box.”
But i just don’t think that the built-in security model can defend against someone who actively accepts the download of a Trojan horse, because they are being told it is a video codec they need to install to see the latest movie online.
What do you think? Why Apple has made a sudden turnaround on this support statement?
Tom
Hi Michael,
Carbon Copy Cloner and SuperDuper are two great solutions to creating bootable clones of your startup drive. I heartily recommend either one. I also recommend keeping a cloned backup on an external drive as well.
Tom
it was a hoax, and Apple corrected
no need any antivirus crap in MAC.
It’s useless, will make your MAC heavy and slow, just like every PC.
Email Attachments contain 99.9% of all viruses.
So, MAC has the best tool for protection, it’s called:
P-R-E-V-I-E-W
USE IT!
If you don’t open all the crap that comes into your JUNK folder(assuming you’re smart enough to use MAIL), then you’re safe. Period.
Almost every ISP provide anticrap protection as well, mostly it’s Norton.
So, you’re people all protected already.
NO NEED TO INSTALL NOTHING!
You want your mac make heavy and slow, go ahead and be happy. But will you ?
Even talking about this subject, is a big time wasted.
If Apple believes strongly enough that OS X needs anti-virus software, why don’t they develop what is needed? At least Microsoft does that…..
Incidentally, I STRONGLY feel that Apple should provide a way for us users to communicate by email directly with them re software and hardware issues !!!!