[PappyAnn]

Hey Guys my new powerbook should be coming soon and i want to protect it from the scum of the internet (viruses,spyware,trojans) what Programs DO you guys use to keep yours safe?

[GENERAL_SMILEY]

To be honest, and I know some will disagree, the scum of the internet for the most part cannot touch your teflon mac ass.

I run two things on my mac, Little Snitch http://www.macupdate.com/info.php/id/10426, and Peer Protector (find it).

Little Snitch blocks apps from phoning home, in general this is for authentication, but it could possibly be more malicious.

Peer Protector, is your simple P2P condom; protecting you from the brutal world of sexually transmitted lawsuits.

Anything else is like wearing rubber boots in the bath

Do not bother with Norton, Netbarrier, or whatever the fsck else they try and sell you - come back when they make a virus which can cross the platform barrier.

[dajk]

I only use Little Snitch and the firewall built in my router.
Meh.

Don't worry about trojans, viruses and such.

[mduell]

The universal program that works on every platform: Don't do anything stupid.
Don't install shady freeware. Don't run random email attachments sent to you.

[cmeisenzahl]

I recommend a hardware router that uses NAT (possibly a hw firewall too), and make sure that the OS X firewall is enabled. Other than that, I do nothing and have never had trouble. But as soon as the first viruses/trojans/etc. get in the wild that can affect OS X, I'll look into something for that. On my PCs it's a fiasco. ;-(

Chris

[ghporter]

General Smiley is a bit overzealous in his assessment, but by using a Mac instead of a Windows computer, you're safe from most of the crap from the Internet that can hurt computers. I like both mduell's advice and what dajk and cmeisenzahl say: don't do dumb stuff (that guy in Nigeria is NOT your friend!) and use both the software firewall that comes with OS X AND a NAT router and you've covered most bases.

Paranoid people like me use antivirus software on our Macs, but it's not at all the "do this before you get the cable near the computer" requirement it is with Windows. There are zero OS X viruses in the wild today, but I think that willy eventually change, so keep your eyes on the sky for signs of Mac viruses (like headlines and such).

[Millennium]

Originally Posted by PappyAnn

Hey Guys my new powerbook should be coming soon and i want to protect it from the scum of the internet (viruses,spyware,trojans) what Programs DO you guys use to keep yours safe?

Number One: Do not listen to people who say that Macs are invincible. There little fantasy world will burst soon enough.

Now, this said, there are some things to be aware of. One: there is no reputable anti-spyware stuff for the Mac. This is, in large part, because it is difficult to build a reputation when there's really not much to scan for. To date, only two spyware programs have been written for the Mac: a port of LimeShop that even its maker no longer distributes, and a Mac version of Sony's now-infamous rootkit DRM.

As for viruses, the biggest thing you can do is avoid Norton Antivirus. Although this program had a very good reputation on Macs in the pre-OSX days, the OSX version (and even OS9 versions released after OSX was) are generally believed to cause more problems than they solve. This goes for most other Norton stuff out there; there are alternatives. The same is true of Virex. Sophos and Intego both make reputable anti-virus programs for OSX, however, and ClamXAV -an open-source port of the ClamAV engine- is also building a good reputation for itself.

There is no program out there for Windows or Mac which can really help much against Trojan horses. However, they also don't tend to spread very well outside of file-sharing networks, because by definition Trojan horses can't spread or run automatically: you have to trick people into running them. This makes them very easy to write (which is why there isn't really any software out there to detect them; they mutate too quickly), but also mostly avoidable: just think twice before running any app for the first time, and if anything sounds too good to be true then it probably is.

If you are concerned about Trojan horses, though, then the best defense is to not run as an Administrator-class user; run as a regular user instead. This way, even if you do accidentally run a Trojan horse, the damage it can do to the computer will be severely limited. The main difference between a regular user and an Administrator is that regular users need to put in an Administrator password to drag things into or out of /Applications and /Library, but OSX provides a button so that you can do this without actually logging out.

[CaptainHaddock]

I say take it easy and don't bother with extra programs. There are no known OS X viruses or worms to date, and I've never heard of spyware* or trojans either. If there ever is an OS X virus in the wild, the news will be all over websites like this anyway.

A few security tips:

1. Go into your network preferences and enable the firewall if you'd like to feel extra secure. One click and it's on.

2. Don't turn on Windows sharing if there are no Windows computers on your network.

3. Nothing can change your system without you entering your password (even if your user is an administrator), so be very suspicious of anything that wants a password. Avoid programs that don't install with the usual drag-and-drop method.

4. Use software update regularly to install the security updates that come out every few weeks.

* I am aware of one spyware app that comes on some of Sony's music CDs, but you have to manually go looking for it to run it deliberately.