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Anti virus for mac
At neme we receive a lot of files from various contributors around the world.
At the moment we are looking for an anti virus protection. I read this article from cnet and I am freaking out. Any suggestion/experience from mac users here?
Yiannis
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NeMe | hblack.art | EMAP | A Sea change | Toolkit of Care
I do my best editing after I click on the submit button.
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Re: Anti virus for mac
colak wrote:
At neme we receive a lot of files from various contributors around the world.
Are those files executables? As long as you turn autorun scripts etc. off and don’t execute executables you won’t get infected!
Regular files can’t infect you, it needs to be real executable code or a security hole in zip program or image viewer slash library.
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Re: Anti virus for mac
Hi Jukka, we receive all kinds. from director and flash projectors to movies to word files. And all kind of extensions. That is why I think it is prudent to invest on an antivirus.
Yiannis
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NeMe | hblack.art | EMAP | A Sea change | Toolkit of Care
I do my best editing after I click on the submit button.
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Re: Anti virus for mac
colak wrote:
Hi Jukka, we receive all kinds. from director and flash projectors to movies to word files. And all kind of extensions. That is why I think it is prudent to invest on an antivirus.
I bit of disagree; It is not. Actually the antivirus is the last change protector, not a real primary protection or a problem solver.
You can install a one if you like, but if you are afraid of infection, then it’s not the problem solver. If you want to scan files, then install any of those scanners, scan those files. When your done, close the scanner. That way it doesn’t efect your system performance.
extensions
Only Windows treats files by extensions. In *nix/bsd systems if the file is false, it is false. There are bad and good things in it.
If you do handle misc files do not trust’em by icons or extensions. Those two tell none about the file; extension can be anything and so can the icon. File type is the you should be looking for.
Rules:
- Do not run system as a root/admin.
- Do not give programs permissions over system files or allow it to gain access to input devices, drivers, network etc. That means you use stannard user access and don’t give yourself rights over systems files. Basically the rights you have, all the malware you execute have too.
- Update. Update and update.
When handling misc content:
- Run the system in a sandbox, use the content via linux live cd, disconnect router etc.
- No antivirus will protect you from everything! It just detects things that it knows.
Last edited by Gocom (2009-10-18 09:37:28)
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Re: Anti virus for mac
Thanks Jukka, But the question remains. Which software should we buy?
Yiannis
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NeMe | hblack.art | EMAP | A Sea change | Toolkit of Care
I do my best editing after I click on the submit button.
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Re: Anti virus for mac
colak wrote:
Thanks Jukka, But the question remains. Which software should we buy?
Any or all. All do work and if you use it as run-once scanner, the performance won’t matter. Norton and McAfee products do work just fine, and both have good databases.
I personally would use a scanner that have no active protection or scanner. Like ClamXav. Less bloat. But that isn’t a commercial product, so it might be a problem.
Last edited by Gocom (2009-10-18 09:48:46)
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Re: Anti virus for mac
Yiannis, whatever you do, don’t buy Symantec/Norton. The previous film editor at my job installed it on our Macs, and it just slowed everything down (especially booting). Norton’s bundled uninstaller doesn’t actually uninstall anything, but at least they provide an alternate one that actually removes their kernel extension. (I’ve never had a good experience with Norton, even in the bad old days of Windows 98.)
If you really want to scan, ClamXAV is probably the only non-nagware version out there. I’ve only used it once on a Mac as a quick test, and it was fine, but it didn’t detect anything.
Probably a better solution is to have AV software on your mail server. Google Apps, for instance, scans all attachments for viruses before letting you download them. However, it might miss Mac ones, so you still need to be careful about what you execute. On OS X, you only really need to worry about AppleScripts because they can come as .app, .scpt, or extension-less files and can run destructive shell scripts (rm -rf $HOME or if it prompts for your password, rm -rf /).
I haven’t used AV software in a long time on Windows or OS X, but if you suspect your user might not be careful about what files he or she downloads and opens, give them a limited account and don’t give them the admin password to the machine. Most Mac applications (unless they’re pkg installs) can be installed in the user’s home directory (~/Applications), so you don’t need admin access to install a new app.
EDIT: So yes, what Jukka said :).
Last edited by jm (2009-10-18 15:34:07)
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Re: Anti virus for mac
Hi JM. Thanks for the response. We have no ‘users’. What we have is A LOT of material arriving to us for our consideration. The material comes in all formats and disks such as dvds, cds, USB sticks, miniDVs (we don’t worry about those)… you name it. We open everything that arrives. This is what worries me.
To set things straight I am by no means thinking or implying that anyone would knowingly send us any malware.
Yiannis
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NeMe | hblack.art | EMAP | A Sea change | Toolkit of Care
I do my best editing after I click on the submit button.
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Re: Anti virus for mac
Ah. OK, how about this then:
- Create a new limited user account, “Unloading” or something
- Log in as that user
- Create a directory called “Applications” in that users home folder (~/Applications)
- Download and install ClamXAV in ~/Applications
- Open ClamXAV > Preferences > Sentry
- Add “Downloads” to the “Folders being watched” section
- Check “Scan inserted disks”
- Drop any new media into ~/Downloads and let it be scanned
I think this will work, but I haven’t actually tried this. You can skip 1-2 if you’d rather use your own account too.
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#10 2009-10-18 20:50:03
- uli
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- Registered: 2006-08-15
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Re: Anti virus for mac
Two small additions to what Yukka and JM said:
Add your mail attachments folder and any shared folders to the folders watched by ClamXav.
Don’t use widespread mail applications like Apple Mail or Mozilla Thunderbird. Malware uses well known structures and mechanisms
In bad weather I never leave home without wet_plugout, smd_where_used and adi_form_links
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Re: Anti virus for mac
I don’t disagree much with anything said before in this thread. However, we have taken to using this on our Macs. It’s currently free, presumably until it emerges from Beta. It uncovered some malware that had been placed on one of our sites during its first scan of the copy of the site files we hold here.
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Re: Anti virus for mac
Hey Yannis, I’‘d go with JM’s suggestion – we live in a day where free-software is perhaps near or at the top of the game.
I personally use Avast Antivirus on Windows and Linux machines and I’ve never had to complain.
It is free for home use – though you will need to enter a new license key every six months or so for security – which is also absolutely free. No nagging or coaxing to upgrade – my guarantee !
There are “Pro” versions and “Business” versions as well for a price. I don’t know what you need but if you simply want to keep your computer safe, then the Free version should be enough.
You can read more about Avast on Wiki
Last edited by maniar (2010-03-02 17:39:43)
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