BSELIB

PC Tools iAntivirus for Mac
PC Tools iAntivirus guards against Mac only malware, including viruses, worms, trojans, spyware and adware. Unlike some Mac antivirus software, PC Tools iAntivirus doesn’t cover Windows-based malware, which helps keep performance costs and system impact low but may not be the best bet choice in a mixed Mac/Windows environment. PC Tools iAntivirus is free for home (and home office) use and currently supports Intel-based Macs running OS X 10.5 only. An unobtrusive and efficient Mac antivirus software option that dedicated Mac users will want to try. Currently in beta.
Simple but Elegant
Like other PC Tools offerings, iAntivirus steers clear of bloat – providing exactly the features you’d expect in an antivirus software as unobtrusively as possible. For example, there’s an option to disable the dock icon if you want to keep things tidy. But if you do leave the iAntivirus dock icon enabled, you can drag and drop files and folders there for quick and easy scans.
PC Tools iAntivirus features realtime protection, scheduled quick scans, and scheduled updates. Monitoring mode keeps iAntivirus working truly in the background, ideal for those who don’t want to be disturbed by alerts or anyone trying to conserve laptop batteries.
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.

Intego VirusBarrier X5: Mac Antivirus Software Review
It’s pretty hard not to like Intego VirusBarrier X5 with the eye candy interface it sports. Fortunately, VirusBarrier not only looks cool, it performs well too. VirusBarrier provides realtime signature-based and behavior-based scanning and guards against both Mac-specific and Windows-based malware. You can, however, turn off the scanning for Windows-only malware if you wish. At $70 for a single license, VirusBarrier is one of the pricier Mac antivirus options available – but it’s also one of the best.
Full Featured; Streamlined Performance
With some antivirus developers, a Mac antivirus offering is an afterthought. But at Intego, Mac security is their core business and that focus translates into a higher quality product. Intego closely monitors security events impacting Mac OS users, thus they tend to be one of the first to add detection for new Mac malware and Mac-vulnerable exploits.
Intego VirusBarrier X5 sports a sleek, modern interface that’s an improvement over the boring box windows of most other programs. The fresh look is backed up with on-access realtime scanning, a Trusted Zone to exclude files/folders from scans, and scans for iPod and iPhone touch malware. VirusBarrier can scan for Windows malware, which helps to prevent inadvertent spread in mixed environments. Mac-only users can disable the Windows malware scanning if desired. Email scanning (on send/receive) is also included, along with a quarantine feature, behavior analysis, scanning of compressed files and archives, and all the other features we expect to find in our Windows antivirus protection but too seldom find in Mac antivirus software offerings.
System performance is excellent; VirusBarrier maintains a very unobtrusive background presence – though it would be nice if the dock icon could be disabled during install. On the plus side, you can drag new or suspect files to the dock icon for a quick scan.

Read the rest of this entry »
McAfee VirusScan for Mac
McAfee VirusScan for Mac (formerly known as Virex) can be used as a standalone virus scanner for Mac or integrated with McAfee ePolicy Orchestrator (ePO) for enterprise management. McAfee VirusScan for Mac supports Mac OS X 10.4.6 (Tiger) or later and Mac OS X 10.5 (Leopard). The universal binary can be installed on either PowerPC or Intel-based Macs. Integration with ePO requires ePO version 3.6 (patch 2) or above.
Enterprise Ready Protection
Given the abundance of backdoors and keyloggers distributed via the Web today, not knowing what’s happening on all your networked machines adds even more risk to the enterprise. And one limitation of existing Mac antivirus solutions is they don’t typically lend themselves to network-wide management. McAfee VirusScan for Mac (aka Virex) gets high marks for its integration capabilities with McAfee ePolicy Orchestrator, enabling admins to pre-configure policies and get access to scan reports. In addition, McAfee VirusScan for Mac can be installed via the standard setup interface or silently via command-line. McAfee VirusScan for Mac can pull updates direct from McAfee (the default) or configured to pull from a designated internal FTP server.
McAfee VirusScan for Mac includes detections for exploits, viruses, trojans, worms, and spyware that threatens Macs, PCs, and Unix systems. On access scanning provides realtime protection while drag and drop scanning facilitates a quick check of newly downloaded files.

ClamXav – - Free Mac Antivirus Software
ClamXav is based on the open source ClamAV virus scanner. Popular among open source fans, in practice ClamAV lags behind the detection capabilities of commercial antivirus software. For Mac users, this may not be a significant limitation given that there are far fewer malware impacting the Mac OS. If you’re looking for free Mac antivirus software, ClamXav is certainly a virus scanner worth trying.
Capable Enough
The free ClamXav antivirus scanner offers limited realtime scanning, the ability to scan email, on-demands scans, and support for multiple languages: Danish, English, French, German, Italian, Japanese, Korean, Polish, Spanish and Taiwanese. ClamXav fully supports Mac OS X v10.4 (Tiger) and 10.5 (Leopard), with limited support for v10.3 (Panther) and 10.2 (Jaguar).
Because ClamXav is based on ClamAV, detection of Windows-based malware is also included. However, ClamAV in general tends to be behind the curveball when it comes to detecting malware. This may be less of an issue for Mac users given that there are fewer threats impacting the Mac OS. Still, if you’re a corporate Mac user or looking for up-to-the-minute protection (or even up-to-the-month), ClamXav may not be your best bet.
ClamXav Sentry offers limited realtime scanning; designate the folders you want it to watch and instruct ClamXav Sentry to load when your computer is started. Of course, this means malware that gets dropped into folders not watched by ClamXav Sentry won’t be detected unless you perform a manual scan of the system and manual scans via ClamXav can be tediously slow.
ClamXav is by no means the most capable Mac antivirus scanner and it’s definitely not the fastest. But for the price of free, it’s worth taking for a test drive.

MacScan Antispyware for Macs
MacScan v2.6 from SecureMac provides spyware detection for Mac OS X v10.2.4 and higher. Built-in support for Firefox v3 provides cookie cleaning and limited Web surfing protection. MacScan also guards against Mac-specific keyloggers and spyware-related trojans targeting the Mac OS. MacScan retails for approximately $30 for single use or $50 for up to three Macs via the MacScan Family Pack.
Focused Features
MacScan from SecureMac is designed to guard against spyware-related threats targeting Mac users. Support for Firefox 3 provides cookie cleaning and limited Web file scanning. In addition, MacScan can clean up Internet history folders and the cached files from previous websites visits in Firefox, Safari, and Internet Explorer. MacScan doesn’t do any better at cleaning up Internet tracks than do the features already included in these browsers, but if you happen to switch between browsers often, it does provide a single point through which to clear your tracks.
MacScan doesn’t guard against cross-platform threats such as macro viruses, or any non-spyware-related Mac malware. Unlike many of the other traditional Mac antivirus offerings, MacScan also doesn’t guard against Windows-based malware. However, MacScan does protect against the types of threats that pose the greatest security risks: keyloggers, backdoors, remote access Trojans, and spyware.

Norton Antivirus 11.0 for Mac
For Mac users seeking the most complete protection against the inadvertent transmission of Windows-based malware, Norton Antivirus 11.0 for Mac is an excellent choice. But for Mac users most interested in defending against threats targeted specifically at the Mac, Intego VirusBarrier may be the best option.
Uninspired Windows Focus
Norton Antivirus 11.0 for Mac includes the basics: realtime, on-demand and email scanning. Also included is signature-based vulnerability scanning to help guard against known security exploits. OS X 10.5 users will also get the Norton Dashboard Widget, a threat level alerting widget that has little use to Mac users given that the listed threats all targeted Windows.
Norton Antivirus 11.0 for Mac seems uninspired at best. It’s not that one expects antivirus protection to be sexy, but Norton Antivirus 11.0 for Mac seems to be more geared to protecting downstream users from Windows malware passing through a Mac computer, rather than protecting Mac users.
Symantec bills Norton Antivirus for Mac as “The #1 selling antivirus solution for the Mac”. But as the fine print reveals, that’s number one based on “NPD Group’s retail Top-Selling Business Software list”. Aren’t ‘retail’ and ‘business software’ somewhat mutually exclusive?
Bottom line: Norton Antivirus 11.0 for Mac is an adequate solution for universities and other mixed use environments where the containment of Windows-based malware is the focus. However, those interested in protecting their Macs would do well to consider Intego VirusBarrier instead.

Norton AntiVirus Dual Protection for MacNorton AntiVirus Dual Protection for Mac is designed for Mac users who routinely dual boot into Windows or who run Windows in a virtual environment on their Intel-based Mac. Given that Norton AntiVirus 11.0 for Mac seems more geared to protecting Windows users from malware relayed through a Mac, one has to wonder if it’s not a bit of overkill to offer both together. Wouldn’t one or the other do a perfectly adequate job on their own?
Tough to Justify Price
Norton AntiVirus Dual Protection for Mac is a rebranded copy of Norton AntiVirus 11.0 for Mac and Norton AntiVirus 2008 for Windows. Norton AntiVirus 11.0 for Mac supports Mac OS X version 10.4.10 or higher and Norton AntiVirus 2008 supports Windows Vista (Home/Business/Ultimate), Windows XP Service Pack 2 (Home/Pro) and Windows XP Media Center. If you boot to Windows and Mac OS X about equally, Norton AntiVirus Dual Protection for Mac might be a cost effective means to secure both. But if you tend to favor one OS far more than the other, you may want to purchase a dedicated product specifically for that operating system and save a few dollars by installing a free antivirus scanner on the other.

3 Responses to “Mac Antivirus Software”

Leave a Reply

Name (required)

Mail (will not be published) (required)

Website

CAPTCHA Code