On Dec 23, 2011, at 12:45 PM, Baldassare Guzzo wrote: > Do you like Sophos too? Think I read here on the list that Sophos was pretty > good for us. Is clamxav better?
Sophos was good, years ago, but they haven't kept up. The Windows version is at 9.something and is now called Sophos "Endpoint and Security Control", and offers much better protection against web-based malware than the old 7.x version, which is the latest they offer for the Mac. Definitions for the Mac version have ben updated, of course, but it's still an obsolete product. For example you cannot scan removable drives or specific folders, only mounted internal volumes. For most people this isn't a big hassle, and for them Sophos does still work pretty unobtrusively (save for the odd occasion when they mark something essential as a virus, like the time they accidentally released a definitions update that caused them to quarantine and delete the Microsoft Application Support directory. We still refer to that as "The day that Office died") but for my purposes, when someone brings in a weird USB stick, I'd like to be able to scan it quickly. This also prevents me from attaching infected PC drives via USB and disinfecting them. ClamXAv, on the other hand, has improved by leaps and bounds, and the underlying clamav infrastructure is robust, we use it to scan our email on the server, tens of thousands of emails daily. I've been quite happy using ClamXAv on the UA systems (which by official policy MUST have AV software running on them, which is akin to requiring all employees to get a pap smear and prostate exam every year, no exceptions...;-) but my personal systems? Haven't run any antivirus software on them in decades. Last virus I ever got on a mac was WDEF. There was a simple fix for that one: Upgrade to 7. Not 10.7...to System 7, that fancy-dancy cool new version of the OS that broke so many programs and had awesome new features like TrueType fonts, file sharing and aliases. The only thing you really HAVE to do to pretty much bulletproof a Mac running OS X is to go into Safari's preferences and uncheck that stupid "Open 'safe' content after downloading" checkbox. That's really the only blatantly open hole in the system that doesn't reside atop the user's shoulders... -- Bruce Johnson University of Arizona College of Pharmacy Information Technology Group Institutions do not have opinions, merely customs -- You received this message because you are a member of G-Group, a group for those using G3, G4, and G5 desktop Macs - with a particular focus on Power Macs. The list FAQ is at http://lowendmac.com/lists/g-list.shtml and our netiquette guide is at http://www.lowendmac.com/lists/netiquette.shtml To post to this group, send email to g3-5-list@googlegroups.com For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/g3-5-list
