New Mac users forum: Antivirus, Firewall

OS X has a built in firewall which guards against incoming stuff but does not check outgoing stuff.
For the outgoing, I would suggest a program called Little Snitch.

Bob Proffit can tell you more about the (Unix) OS X firewall.

As for Anti-Virus programs. There are currently no virus's that operate successfully against OS X. There are a number of trojans but with a little common sense they can easily be avoided.
If you want to "feel" save, try ClamXAV. A free AV application that does the job well.
Avoid any of the commercial AV brands, Symantec, Intego, etc. as they chew up clock cycles looking for non-existent threats.

My local Mac Users group does not have any member that is running AV software on their Macs.

P

Welcome to the World of Safety.

If you are running Apple's OS X, it will ask you for your user password before installing anything (and that includes anything from Apple, too) on your Macintosh. That's a pretty good way to ensure you are thinking before you are installing. But there has been one, released back in 2006: http://www.ambrosiasw.com/forums/index.php?showtopic=102379

Apple has its firewall on by default, so if anyone is looking for a computer to exploit, they probably won't find yours. Try this port scan: https://www.securitymetrics.com/portscan.adp

If you are also running Windows using Boot Camp, Parallels or VMWare, your Windows installation will be vulnerable. You should definitely purchase aftermarket software to prevent trojans, viruses and to set up a decent firewall to prevent hackers from using your computer as their slave. There are currently millions of PCs running Windows that are not completely under the control of their owners. None are Macs running OS X alone.

As for antivirus software, whatever you do, don't buy anything sold by Symantec. I don't recommend their tools to my Windows friends, either. Their tools are not upgraded often enough and they miss some of the worst offenders. They also are a serious drain on your CPU and conflict with other applications you may intend to run.

For OS X, I can recommend ClamXav which costs nothing, though I did donate to the author: http://www.clamxav.com/

Then you can rest easy, assured that as long as you don't do anything silly, you run a superior operating system that defends itself well against malicious hackers.

If the ports are all closed, that is a pretty good indication of a working firewall.

U need Protemac NetMine. It includes a firewall and an antivirus both. Good solution.