MAC OS X Anti-Virus

ClamXav is a free virus checker for Mac OS X. It uses the popular ClamAV (Linux) open source antivirus engine as a back end.

ClamXav comes with ClamXav Sentry which provides the ability to watch folders for changes to their contents. As soon as a file or folder is added to one of the watched folders, it is scanned by ClamXav. If the new addition is clean, no further action is required on your part. On the other hand, if it is infected, a warning message is displayed immediately alerting you to the fact and allowing you to decide which course of action to take.

Once you download ClamXav, simply drag the Clam icon onto your Applications folder, or the destination of your choice. You might also want to hang on to the manual and extras that are included in the disk image.  To complete the installation procedure, launch ClamXav from your hard drive. The application will check for the presence of an up-to-date Clamav engine and, if it does not detect any, which it shouldn't the first time you launch it or after an upgrade and will launch an engine installer for you to use.

The best way to test ClamXav and its Sentry feature is to simply download a file called the EICAR test file. This file, actually a harmless text file, is an industry-standard test designed to activate antivirus applications. If your antivirus protection reacts to it, chances are that it is configured properly and working as expected.  To get it, go to this page and download the files listed at the bottom, from the left to the right. These are basically the same file but it is increasingly disguised, zipped, and stealthed to make it harder for your antivirus to detect it. Clamav should detect all the files in a flash and warn you about them.

Norton Anti-virus for Mac, version 9.0 is also in the market and has a good following. A number of OSX users have also installed the products of Intego: these include VirusBarrier and Netbarrier. A further commercial product is that of Sophos which has a link to evaluate a copy of the application.

There have been few instances of viruses directed at the Mac, one of the many advantages of the platform. Likewise, there have been few reports of malware specifically targeting the Mac. However, the good fortune of Mac users in generally avoiding these scourges of the PC world may not last forever. Similarly, spyware is likely to become an increasing problem for Mac users.

Your best defenses against both malware and spyware are the following:

• Only download and launch files from trusted sites. In particular, heed the alert concerning unknown applications provided by the Security Update 2004-06-07.
• Avoid Peer-to-Peer (P2P) file-sharing sites and applications.
• Install and use anti-virus software. Keep the virus definitions updated. Enabling the automatic protection features of your anti-virus application is a good idea, particularly if your computing activities expose you to virus-prone environments, including:
  • Receiving Microsoft® Office documents from Microsoft® Windows® users.
  • Educational computing networks.
  • Using P2P sites.
• Before using an advertising-supported application, review its license agreement or contact its author to determine how it protects your privacy and, in particular, if it employs spyware.
• Take advantage of the new security features in Tiger, such as Private Browsing in Safari and Secure Virtual Memory, the latter in System Preferences > Security.

Apple .Mac has disbanded Virex support