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  5 1 I agree with Jay for the most part. Most of the anti-virus products out there do more harm than good. The malware world is changing too quickly for these reactive type tools to keep up with. I'd say your time is better spent making your browsing habits as safe as possible (ex: if you use Firefox, use NoScipt, etc. Avoid Adobe Reader, keep Flash up to date) so that the chance of something bad even trying to get on your machine is super small. Enjoy the "advantage" now on your Mac as that gap will be closed eventually as more and more people target them scarr4 answered in Geek Week about 1 year ago | Report Comment on this answer Enter your comment or ask a new question New comments are not being accepted at this time.

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• Reputation: 105 Q&A: 3 0 0 45 2 0 Classifieds: 2 0 what's this? Expert: 1 topic Geek Week Moderator Jay Jansheski is a moderator on Questionland Seattle Follow Following 0 Jay Jansheski

  4 0 I never have, and I usually advise against. Macs definitely aren't virus-proof, but they're virus resistant, and they're a much less visible target than computers running windows simply because there are far fewer Macs than Windows machines out there (if someone is writing a virus, he's going to want to hit highest number of computers he can). The reason I advise against rather than installing antivirus software just to be safe is that I despise all the antivirus software currently on the market. It's been a while, but the last time I fooled with antivirus software I found it to be just as problematic as a virus- installing toolbars I didn't want, changing permissions on things for which I didn't want the permissions changed, refusing to be uninstalled, and just generally being a pain in the ass. You would do better to put your energy toward finding good backup solution (sure to be discussed elsewhere here on Geek Week) so that if anything catastrophic happens, whether it be virus, flood, or fire, you can restore without too much trauma and continue on your way. Jay Jansheski answered in Geek Week about 1 year ago | Report Comment on this answer Enter your comment or ask a new question New comments are not being accepted at this time.

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  3 0 I'm going to say No. You don't have to buy it, if you want to USE some, however, there are plenty of free and freely available applications out there. I'll leave out the clunky command-line stuff but check out some of the ones hosted on Apple's site: http://www.apple.com/downloads/macosx/networking_security/ here is what I use and recommend: http://www.obdev.at/products/littlesnitch/index.html (cost, but worth it) http://www.clamxav.com/ (free) http://agilewebsolutions.com/products/1Password (cost, but worth it) There are many ways to keep your machine/data protected, @Brian Geoghagan is right about passwords, don't use the same one for everything and don't slap them in willy-nilly when you are asked for them. I myself don't use an Administrator account for day-to-day use. And @Jay Jansheski has the bigger picture here: Back Up Your Data! Sheree Pennah answered in Geek Week about 1 year ago | Report Comment on this answer Enter your comment or ask a new question New comments are not being accepted at this time.

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  2 0 Be careful what you type your username/password into and you should be fine without virus protection. Brian Geoghagan answered in Geek Week about 1 year ago | Report Comment on this answer Enter your comment or ask a new question New comments are not being accepted at this time.

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  1 0 Installing antivirus software "just to be safe" is kind of like getting a smallpox vaccine. The viruses that are known to target OS X aren't that much of a threat, and AV software won't protect you against unknown threats any more than the smallpox shot will shield you from the Andromeda Strain. Lee answered in Geek Week about 1 year ago | Report Comment on this answer Enter your comment or ask a new question New comments are not being accepted at this time.

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  1 0 If you're careful with where you go online you should be fine without it. That being said, I don't trust the word "should" and have ClamXav on mine. Bogcat answered in Geek Week about 1 year ago | Report Comment on this answer Enter your comment or ask a new question New comments are not being accepted at this time.

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• Reputation: 1962 Q&A: 32 0 1 1965 663 0 Classifieds: 0 0 what's this? Follow Following 2 elenchos

  0 0 You don't — as Jay Jansheski, scarr4, and Sheree Peña explained in detail. But, there are a couple situations where you might. One is where you receive files from Windows users, look at them, perhaps change them or make notes, and then pass them on to other Windows users. Typically Office documents like Word and Excel, but also PDF or image or audio or video files. If the file you got carried a Windows virus, you might not even notice. But the Windows user who you pass the file on to might get infected, and blame you because they got the file from you. Clearly, ignorance and power relationships figure in here. If your clueless boss or a clueless client thinks you gave them a Windows virus from a Word doc you had on your Mac, well, that's just sad. But such is life and you might not think it's worth it to have to talk down somebody who flips out on you because of something like that. To avoid having those kinds of misunderstandings, you might want to clean the Windows viruses off the files you're sending on to other Windows users just to cover your ass. The other thing is if you run Windows on your Mac with Parallels or VMWare or whatever. Hopefully it's obvious that a virtual Windows instance has no magic protection just because it exists inside a Mac, and that Windows virtual machine just as vulnerable as any other. It will need antivirus software and firewalls and endless patching and updates to delay the inevitable day when malware will render it useless, and it has to be erased and re-installed. But at least virtual machines are easy to back up. You also probably want to limit the access this virtual machine has to files on your Mac, since all hell could be breaking loose inside it. elenchos answered in Geek Week about 1 year ago | Report Comment on this answer Enter your comment or ask a new question New comments are not being accepted at this time.

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  0 0 No, next question. A lot of them mostly scan for windows bugs anyway. There are no in-the-wild malware for the mac right now that hasn't been patched by the latest security updates. If and when you need to get mac antivirus software you'll hear about it. For now don't even bother. Brandon Humphries answered in Geek Week about 1 year ago | Report Comment on this answer Enter your comment or ask a new question New comments are not being accepted at this time.

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  0 3 Never hurts. O my captain answered in Geek Week about 1 year ago | Report Comment on this answer Enter your comment or ask a new question New comments are not being accepted at this time.

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