anti-malware for macbooks?

Discussion in 'other anti-malware software' started by mattdocs12345, Jan 6, 2015.

  1. mattdocs12345

    mattdocs12345 Registered Member

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    My last thinkpad is about to give out its last breath. It's only 2 years old, thinkpads truly became a cheap brand after lenovo took over them. But I am digressing.... I am soon to buy a macbook and will give OSX a try, is there any good anti-malware software for Macintosh?
     
  2. Mayahana

    Mayahana Banned

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    I'd avoid Mac Books like the plague, or "MBP" as the Apple Fanboys call them. Every single person I have ever known that tried to migrate to Apple from PC returned - usually within months, rarely more than a year. My gamer buddy showed up one day here with a MBP, proud lookin'.. 7 months later he came back over and had a MSI GT70 Dragon Gamer's Laptop.. A failed experiment that MBP was.

    Thinkpads are still great, what makes you think it's about to die? Maybe a nice wipe and restoration would fix it? My company purchased a giant stack of Twist's last year - what I consider the crowning achievement in notebooks. Now the Twist isn't made anymore, so I picked up a couple extra to last me into the next decade. Yogas came after, and they were pretty decent... You can find Twists pretty cheap, I picked one up off of Ebay for $459.00 - sealed in box new, and that's with an i7 chip. It runs for about 7 hours on the battery alone. At the least, a top-end Lenovo Flex 2 will cost you about $500 less than a MBP, and run circles around it. Flex 2's are remarkable. Flex 2's range from 7-10 hours battery life, also very good for the power they offer.

    Anyway, as to your question.. I'd rock out with Norton 2015 if you do try the MBP experiment..
     
  3. mattdocs12345

    mattdocs12345 Registered Member

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    I have thoroughly researched macbooks. I actually went into both apple store and microsoft store and compared them against newest thinkpads. Macbooks have improved their quality significantly from few years ago. The hinges are much more solid, they are no longer loose, the screens are superb, the keyboards are original and not copy cats imitations.
    I have own thinkpads for 15 years. Pretty much all of my laptops were thinkpads. My Thinkpad Pantinum II is still going but too slow to support flash playback or any meaningful work. My grudge with the new thinkpads is:
    1) poor quality - my 2 year old thinkpad screen stopped working, the power button stopped working, hinges became loose.
    2) new thinkpads have no middle button making trackpoint useless for me
    3) new thinkpads have loose hinges
    4) after crap out of my 2 recent thinkpads both 2 years or younger I refuse to invest into this company.
    5) oh did I not forget? the loss of original thinkpad keyboard.
    Why would I go back from macbooks to any other laptop? I don't use Windows, I use Linux. I have no problem putting Linux on Macbook if I don't like OSX. I haven't used Windows as my main stream OS ever since Windows 8 came out. And if I really wanted to I would find a way to put Windows 7 on macbook.
     
    Last edited: Jan 6, 2015
  4. SweX

    SweX Registered Member

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    @ Mayahana, come on mate, each to their own alright. I know several users of Apple products iphone, MBP etc etc that don't see themselves as "fan boys", they simply use them because they like the products, how they work etc etc...as I said each to their own. Same thing when some like Win 8.1 and others don't, no big deal, and no plague involved.

    @ mattdocs12345

    There are both free and paid for AV products available for OSX. And as with the Windows AVs, they are all designed differently, some use their own AV engine, some use a licensed engine, so read on about the ones you are interested in. There are no test org that perform continues testing on the OSX AV products like AV-C does with the Win equivalent.

    But I post some links that you may find useful.
    http://www.av-test.org/en/news/news...osshairs-18-malware-scanners-put-to-the-test/

    http://www.av-comparatives.org/mac-security-review-test-2014/
     
  5. mattdocs12345

    mattdocs12345 Registered Member

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    I already have webroot license. I was just wondering if there is additional software equivalent to HMP or MBAM that can be used as 2nd opinion scanner.
     
  6. SweX

    SweX Registered Member

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    I see.
    No, not that I know of anyway. But you can always upload specific files to VT if you feel a need for it and get a second opinion that way.
     
  7. mattdocs12345

    mattdocs12345 Registered Member

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    But VT is only for Windows in my understanding at least.
     
  8. Pedersen

    Pedersen Registered Member

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    Your friend should really buy a desktop... Laptops are not for hardcore gaming...

    I have a MBP and it is yet the only computer I have not yelled at (and is a whole year old!). So for any school work/office work/search around the internet I would recommend one.

    Back on topic.
    I run Webroot on my Mac but be aware that webroot dont know many files on Mac so it would be common for your to change app from "monitor" to "allow". Further it popups at any Adobe updates. I have not tried any other.

    VT for mac does exist:
    https://www.virustotal.com/da/documentation/desktop-applications/mac-osx-uploader

    Best regards
    Pedersen
     
  9. SweX

    SweX Registered Member

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    http://blog.virustotal.com/2014/12/a-closer-look-at-mac-os-x-executables.html

    Someone is quite upset in the comments section of the blog lol, probably about some FP detections.
     
  10. crapbag

    crapbag Registered Member

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    The products I used never found anything and just bogged down the machine. I tried out Webroot, Intego and then Avast.

    I'm not the guy who's going to tell you Mac's are bulletproof but I'm not using anything on mine. I get the impression that vendors put more time and money into the Windows versions of their products. Understandable I guess.

    I liked the idea of Intego-an antivirus designed for Mac's. But it's so bloody expensive and when I trialled it the thing was too heavy for my liking.

    Best of luck.
     
  11. mattdocs12345

    mattdocs12345 Registered Member

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    How did webroot behave?
     
  12. crapbag

    crapbag Registered Member

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    Fine I guess. I actually didn't think it was as light as it's Windows counterpart. I read that some people were having trouble removing the product and that Webroot were overhauling the Mac version at some point.

    https://community.webroot.com/t5/Se...ponse-to-Mac-AV-Test-Results/m-p/145645#M8283

    The above is a response from Webroot to a 2014 AV Test for Mac.

    If you already have a license just give it a whirl. It uninstalled fine on my Mac. Better than nothing if you need that extra layer of security.
     
  13. ArchiveX

    ArchiveX Registered Member

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  14. wshrugged

    wshrugged Registered Member

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    In my investigation of Macs regarding anti-malware software I found these links useful :

    https://discussions.apple.com/message/24816488#24816488 ( Linc Davis' post)

    http://www.reedcorner.net/mmg/ (longtime, respected, Apple support community [user to user] contributor)

    http://support.apple.com/en-us/HT202491

    (edited by wshrugged to have second link point to beginning of guide)
     
    Last edited: Jan 9, 2015
  15. NormanF

    NormanF Registered Member

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    None needed! All you need is a good firewall front-end. Mac OSX is UNIX and UNIX users don't need to install anti-malware. There are no viruses or malware written to attack it and the only legitimate reason to install anti-malware is to prevent Windows users from becoming infected.
     
  16. mattdocs12345

    mattdocs12345 Registered Member

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    Thanks. I will keep that in mind.
     
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