On Dec 17, 2010, at 8:57 AM, Nora Probasco wrote:
I need to renew my Virus Barrier soon and they now have a new version so I have to purchase that too. I keep hearing that Macs don't need this type of protection. Is this true and am I wasting money renewing Virus Barrier?? Opinions welcomed!
I haven't run a virus check on my Macs in this century and I don’t think I've used one on any Mac since Disinfectant was discontinued a long time ago. If you do need a security blanket, check out ClamXav. Since it's free, it can detect no viruses a lot more inexpensively than Virus Barrier.
Here's part of the write-up from the ClamXav main page.Back in the days before OS X, the number of viruses which attacked Macintosh users totalled somewhere between about 60 and 80. Today, the number of viruses actively attacking OS X users is...NONE! However, this doesn't mean we should get complacent about checking incoming email attachments or web downloads, for two reasons. Firstly, there's no guarantee that we Mac users will continue to enjoy the status quo, but more importantly, the majority of the computing world use machines running MS Windows, for which an enormous quantity of viruses exist, so we must be vigilant in checking the files we pass on to our friends and colleagues etc. For example, if you're a wise person and you've turned MS Office's macro support off then you're not going to notice that virus which is hiding inside this month's edition of Extreme Ironing.doc which your friend sent you. If you then forward that document to a less wise person who has not turned off the macro support, then you have most likely just sent him a shiny new Pandora's Box with a sign saying "Open this end"!
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