Comments on: Market for Antivirus for the Mac

By: yuga

yuga — Mon, 27 Apr 2009 07:06:39 +0000

@rolly, at least we now both agree that there’s that “opportunity” where an anti-virus is needed. =) Likewise, the McAfee solution was a package deal for all three (phishing, malware and antivirus).

By: rolly

rolly — Mon, 27 Apr 2009 01:33:25 +0000

and I just realized, the email you got is for Norton Internet security which I believe is for phishing and firewall protection only. It isn’t for Antivirus (which is what your title say). I would have agreed on this article had it had a proper title and context to phishing and firewall only – since they are not dependent on OS but the user. That’s why it’s alarming why you leverage antivirus on a phishing and firewall app.

By: rolly

rolly — Mon, 27 Apr 2009 01:27:50 +0000

well, that’s where this post is loose. Antivirus would have been needed for Windows and not for Mac (for discussion sake only) based on the hardware premise.

As for antivirus companies, they are capitalist companies. They create the market, so take anything they say with a grain of salt. If you actually check the Mac community news, there has yet to be a worldwide outbreak of at least one virus that infects a Mac. As of now, there are only phishing, and botnet (from iWork/Photoshop) – which isn’t a virus and needs user interaction (push a button or install the app).

I use both systems, and a common courtesy amongst Mac users would actually use antivirus apps just to check files they’d get from Windows users to clean it, before sending it back. That’s how Mac users would need the antivirus – as courtesy, and not for protection.

By: yuga

yuga — Sun, 26 Apr 2009 17:03:52 +0000

Exactly, that’s why the hardware (i.e. Mac, Macbook, iMac) is not safe anymore from viruses because it no longer just runs on OSX but Windows as well. I would have agreed with you about FUD had the title said “Anti-virus for OSX” (as in if you run OSX on a Dell machine, you don’t need anti-virus for it).

Then again, it points to the core of the question — why have vendors like McAfee been selling antivirus for the Mac for years now if there’s nothing to defend against? If they are able to continue development and sell these anti-virus, would that mean Mac users are continuously buying softwares they don’t need at all? Or is it all for the “preparation/defense” of an upcoming public virus?

By: rolly

rolly — Sun, 26 Apr 2009 16:23:16 +0000

yuga, first there is convoluting phishing and viruses (they are entirely two different things, the latter only exists in Windows and has to have a public appearance in a Mac – the botnet from iWork is from pirated copies, and needs user intervention, they deserve it – stupid ***)

Second, you said it yourself that viruses are needed because Macs run Windows. What is the root cause again?

I’d always take all posts here with a grain of salt since I’m not entirely sure if these are not FUD. my 2 cents.

By: john

john — Sat, 25 Apr 2009 04:16:19 +0000

mac can’t recognize .exe files..

By: Gwapito.com

Gwapito.com — Fri, 24 Apr 2009 11:11:29 +0000

As the market for Macs increases so does the viruses, malwares.

Scammers, spammers, hackers and cyber terrorist will always find a way.

Macs will never be virus free. Period.

By: Adrian

Adrian — Thu, 23 Apr 2009 15:52:24 +0000

mac is based from BSD OS. So there is no need for anti-virus for mac. have you heard that there is a visus for BSD? I dont think so.

BSD is a hardcore OS even compare to linux.

People who needs for antivirus are the one who uses windows

By: ian

ian — Thu, 23 Apr 2009 14:33:29 +0000

“Macs are virus free”

NOOOOOOOOOOOT!!!

lol

By: jomar

jomar — Thu, 23 Apr 2009 02:27:58 +0000

Yuga, oks na link bait ah. Welcome back dvorak!

hehe
jomar

macs rule!

By: sky

sky — Wed, 22 Apr 2009 14:40:11 +0000

There’s a conspiracy theory on that.

By: Paolo

Paolo — Wed, 22 Apr 2009 14:00:07 +0000

Just a though, does anyone think that anti-virus companies make viruses themselves? You think thats possible?

By: jojo

jojo — Wed, 22 Apr 2009 06:06:12 +0000

the future has arrived.. good for anti virus makers and virus makers too

By: cris

cris — Wed, 22 Apr 2009 04:50:25 +0000

there goes the so-called virus-free Mac! hehe

By: Darren

Darren — Wed, 22 Apr 2009 02:52:11 +0000

I hope symantec offering their price more reasonable cause I’m considering buying a iMac. LOL

By: biliPH

biliPH — Tue, 21 Apr 2009 15:37:17 +0000

I agree. With the increasing market share of Apple, we’ll see more attempts from malicious coders unleashing viruses on the Mac. I hope Apple takes these virus and malware threats more seriously.