Antivirus for Hackintosh?

[rheneault]

There are no viruses for Macs? Total rubbish. There are viruses out there, but they are not very common.

As Macs get more popular they will attract more attention form the bad people, so AV software on Macs may soon become a lot more common.

So true...

 

[zeuzzz]

There are no viruses for Macs? Total rubbish. There are viruses out there, but they are not very common.

The virus authors and hackers focus most of their attention on the most popular operating system - Windows. More users, more data, more gains, so that is where they focus their efforts.

There are some viruses out there for Macs, but as you are forced to enter your password before you can install anything there has to be some user input before the virus can effect your machine.

As always, being carful with what you install will negate the need for an AV software on a Mac.

As Macs get more popular they will attract more attention form the bad people, so AV software on Macs may soon become a lot more common.

I agree with this, we should not be complacent. My Last customac was majorly hijacked in some way, someone created five extra users who had root access and admin capabilities that I couldn't delete, security options that should have stopped such attacks were greyed out and missing from menus, each hard drive had a 'write only' to a random dropbox account permission (I've never installed dropbox) that I could not delete, even logged in as an admin.

Whoever compromised it basically had more privileges than I did, and so there was no way I could fix it. It may be uncommon but it can happen. I still have the harddrive here, I ended up stopping it being able to boot up by trying to block all suspicious ports and processes with little snitch, eventually I blocked a vital process by mistake. I have no MAC OS to go into the HDD to try to fix it at the moment. I'm only just starting to get round to making a new one.

I think the fact that customacs are unreliable to upgrade so people who use them tend to be using dated releases where certain security holes have not been patched make them far more susceptible to hackers and virus's. I was using Moutnain Lion 8.0, I would not use anything other than >10.9 now, the old versions do seem to have little known security issues.

Of course if you're very careful (using only App store programs, etc) then you will probably be fine, but in reality very few people only run official app store apps, especially in this community.

 

[rheneault]

Of course if you're very careful (using only App store programs, etc) then you will probably be fine

You don't need to download something for your Mac to be infected... Nowadays, there's a lot of web-based exploits that run through your browser.

A few of them : http://www.rapid7.com/db/search?utf8=✓&q=safari&t=a

If you look at the date, they are not that old.

 

[igielskv]

Hi,

In fact you don't really have to worry about your Hackintosh being infected by a virus...

The program itself works like a charm on my hackintosh.

Ok, I do have to worry a lil bit cause right now it's my main and only system I work on and

I was using ESET NOT32 Antivirus on Windows and I tried ESET Cyber Security, but I didn't like it at all on Mac. It slows down the system so much that I got a rid of that one and right now I'm without any AV, running fast and smooth, just have to be aware what I'm doing and always keep my eyes open.

 

[sebgreen]

Ok, I do have to worry a lil bit cause right now it's my main and only system I work on

Don't lose any sleep over it. Just be careful with what you download and the websites you visit. Common sense precautions.

 

[cdrhoek]

While antivirus software is really not needed to protect a Mac, it can be useful to catch a Windows virus before you pass it on to someone else. If you use the computer for professional purposes, it might be damaging to your business reputation if you pass on a file or email that is infected.

 

[coolqf]

The way Macs are structured naturally makes it more difficult for them to get a virus.

Had Win8.0 volume licenses at our office... Had to reformat and reinstall the entire computer to upgrade to Win8.1... How this is more secure is beyond me...

 

[BlackSlash]

That's probably your answer right there! I don't and have never used AV on a MAC. About the only time I hear about Mac antivirus is right after a big scare in the PC world....Kapersky and some other companies have tried, and failed, to generate some publicity in an attempt to generate sales for their OSX offerings. Totally unnecessary.



I also came from almost 30 years of Windows use. At first it was hard to fathom not running an AV program but so far it's been smooth sailing. As for software you're not sure about, then it's probably best to trust your instincts and move on.

So what about the Trojan how do you protect your self against them. for all you know your computer could be a zombie for a hacker network you wouldn't know take it from someone that has been apart of a zombie network and it aint good.
THIS IS AN OLD POST I KNOW BUT THIS NEEDS TO BE SAID
i have used macs for about 5 years now and have never not needed an AV i have had mountains of trojans found on my mac and have even found evidence of spyware not to mention man in the middle attacks and cyber cyphers which turned my mac into a windows infecting machine and i did not have a clue till my ISP cut me off told me to fix my computer because of the "strange activity my computer was displaying," Come on man get a decent AV and get one that actually prevents hackers and Trojans. also get Malwarebytes it goes off its nut the minute you install it with the amount of malware that macs get it doesn't actually affect the mac directly but the mac does affect other computers the mac comes in contact with.