{"id":289,"date":"2011-11-22T17:01:46","date_gmt":"2011-11-23T00:01:46","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/mattdturner.com\/wordpress\/?p=289"},"modified":"2019-05-17T12:13:52","modified_gmt":"2019-05-17T18:13:52","slug":"free-anti-virus-for-mac","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/mattdturner.com\/wordpress\/2011\/11\/free-anti-virus-for-mac\/","title":{"rendered":"Free Anti-Virus for Mac"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a>With Mac computers rapidly gaining popularity, there is an increased likelihood that viruses will be developed and released for Mac OS.  In the past few months alone, there have been 3 viruses for Mac that come to mind (and links to more information on the virus): Flashback.C<\/a>, OSX\/Tsunami.A<\/a>, and OSX\/Miner-D<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Flashback.C is a trojan virus that prohibits your Mac’s Anti-Malware defense system from being updated.  The virus is installed when you open a .dmg file that contains a fake Adobe Flash Player.<\/p>\n

OSX\/Tsunami.A is another trojan for mac.  It was originally developed for the Linux system, but has been ported to Mac.  The virus embeds itself in your computer system and awaits further instructions from IRC channels.<\/p>\n

OSX\/Miner-D is also an all-in-one virus for Mac.  In addition to being a trojan, it is also a backdoor, stealer, and spyware.  The virus “installs a bitcoin miner that uses up any spare CPU and GPU cycles” and “opens a back-door on your computer to enable remote access” (Sophos<\/a>).  Reports have shown that the virus was hidden inside copies of GraphicConverter v7.4 on torrent sites.<\/p>\n

While I still believe that the best antivirus is a competent user, it doesn’t hurt to have an antivirus software on your Mac.  I personally have tried iAntivirus, ClamXav, and Sophos.  My favorite of the 3 is Sophos.  I’m not saying that iAntivirus and ClamXav are bad by any stretch, but Sophos was the best solution for me.  The reason I liked Sophos over the other 2 was the fact that Sophos is a very light weight program.<\/p>\n

I used to run full HD scans about once every other month using iAntivirus.  While the scan was running, I had to walk away from the computer as the software took a majority of the computer’s resources.  With Sophos, however, I don’t even notice that the scan is running.  While scanning the entire HD, Sophos uses less than 5% of my CPU and only about 11 MB of memory.<\/p>\n

I have heard a few comments about Sophos possibly having a memory leak.  Some users have reported that Sophos on their system uses multiple GB of memory.  I have been unable to reproduce this behavior, and as I previously mentioned the software is very light-weight on my system.<\/p>\n

There have been reports of flaws in the Sophos software (see link below to slashgear.com page), however, its still my favorite AV for Mac.<\/p>\n

If you want to give Sophos a try, you can download it here<\/a>.<\/p>\n

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