Professional OS X Anti-Virus reviews - do they exist?

With the recent introduction of OS X specific botnet trojans, it looks like it just might spell the end of the 'happy days' for Mac/OS X virus situation, although I admit more time has to pass before we know for sure.

Now, if one were to buy an anti-virus for an OS X machine (hardened), where would one turn to for information?

All the usual source like CNet, About.com, Macworld and others who dispense OS X related reviews are completely worthless. They do not understand anti-virus testing at all.

Are there any real professional anti-virus tests for the apps on the OS X platform?

Or is this market still so insignificant that there are none?

 

the question i have is why do you think anti-virus on the mac would be different enough from anti-virus on the pc to warrant separate testing?

mac av products will almost certainly use the same engines that pc av products use... as such their detective performance should be comparable (perhaps even identical, though i wouldn't count on it)...

of course, if you're looking for some other kind of performance metric (like how flashy the design is or how little it slows down your system) then that's another matter entirely...

 

Ehh?

I think you misunderstand me.

OS X viruses are not Windows viruses.

The operating system is different, obviously.

Hence the signatures, database updates, even the engines can be different.

So, Windows anti-virus reviews are of no use to OS X users (running OS X, not windows).

I'm asking for professional reviews of OS X anti-virus software, you know like av-comparatives, but not for Windows AV suites, but for OS X av-suites.

The available OS X antivirus tests are along the lines "hey, it's got a pretty interface" or "wow, it has a small memory footprint". They do not test at all ITW/Zoo samples, detection rates, FPs, etc.

Now, are we finally on the same page?

 

well actually most OS X AV's detect Windows viruses as well for the simple fact that u dont distribute viruses to windows users without knowing. so they probly would have the same sigs.

 

I don't know anything about MAC's, but there may be some information here:

http://www.firewallguide.com/macintosh.htm

 

no, we're not, because you are under the mistaken impression that there will be significant differences between osx av and pc av - there won't be...

the vendors will be the same, the engines will be the same (no need to re-invent the wheel), the databases will be the same...

pc av already has mac malware in their databases, and the mac av uses the same engine and same database... just because it's a different operating system doesn't mean everything else has to be different too... ms office for the mac may be compiled for the mac but it has the same features and deals with the same filetypes as ms office for the pc... the way the av parses RAM may be different, the way it parses the filesystem may be different, but the core malware detection technology will be the same because there's no need for it to be different...

probably the most significant result mac specific testing can uncover is whether the vendor botched the job in porting their latest version over to the mac...

 

What are you talking about? Worms - use a firewall, next. Viruses - don't execute bad stuff, plain and simple, next. Boring.
Mrk

 

that argument is remarkably platform agnostic (ie. it applies equally well to all computers, regardless of their brand or OS or anything like that)...