Ramblings of an Emergency Physician in Texas

Well, so much for the Mac Invincibility Theory

Posted by GruntDoc on December 2nd, 2008

British Broadcasting CorporationIn a note posted on its support site in late November, Apple said it wanted to "encourage" people to use anti-virus to stay safe online.

The move is widely seen as a response to the growing trend among cyber criminals of booby-trapping webpages that can catch out Mac users.

Apple recommended users try McAfee VirusScan, Symantec Norton Anti-Virus 11, or Intego VirusBarrier X5.

For me it won’t be Norton; does anyone have experience with the Mac versions of McAfee ($36.55) or Intego ($69.95)?

No related posts.

Related posts brought to you by Yet Another Related Posts Plugin.


3 Responses to “Well, so much for the Mac Invincibility Theory”

  1. Jack Says:

    I’d say the jury is still out on this one. This is just Apple covering its bases. See: http://chuqui.typepad.com/chuqui_30/2008/12/apple-says-users-should-install-anti-virus-software-so-what.html

    If you’re feeling unsafe, I recommend this Firefox extension: https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/3456

  2. John S Says:

    I use McAfee Virex 7.2; it’s pulled out some Word macro virus things for me, so I suppose the VirusScan would be OK.

    I also run Firefox with NoScript (1.8.7 as of last night).

  3. J.R. Says:

    Have you though about using ClamXav for the anti-virus and MacScan for anti-spyware? ClamXav is free, while MacScan is about $30. The latest version of Mac Scan has the ability to scan the cookies files for the different Mac browsers for tracking cookies. Also, MacScan is able to detect the Mac DNS changer trojan easily. I currently run Safari, Firefox (w/ No Script installed), and Opera, on Mac OS X 10.5.5.