Mac OS X forum: security for macs

Norton make a Personal Firewall Mac edition and also the antivirus program. Spyware is not a problem, neither is adware or other such malware. Safari or Firefox have popup killers. DO NOT USE Internet Explorer, unless you are using OS 9 or below.
Currently there are NO virus's for OS X but you might like to feel safe. OS X has a built in Firewall but the Norton one is slightly more sophisticated.
Hope this helps

P

I would consider the firewall to be the first essential, followed by the AV which is not so essential for Mac OS X. Do bear in mind that AV will spot Windo virus's that are attached to emails and remove them. This stops you from sending them along to your PC weenie friends.

On-Line banking is fine because Safari, or Firefox, are both capable of encrypted connections (https) I on-line bank all the time.

You can always use the firewall built into the OS. you will find it under the Sharing Preference Pane
p

HI
As a cross platform consulting specialist I support many clients who have both Macs and Windows in their home or business, often to enjoy the best of both worlds, such as having a Sports Car and a Pickup Truck in the garage, or in this case the Mac and a PC.

I do things such as new system setups, and networking or wifi planning, or file sharing, and LAN, WAN network protection and think youre going to find there to be very little need for much more than a Firewall. OS X has this built in, and you can continue to use your existing hardware firewall to serve both the Mac and your PC and both will benefit.

Depending on Filesharing and things such as iTunes music sharing between the Mac and Windows PC, the software firewalls in Windows XP and Macintosh OS X both have certain ports that need to be opened. Often just leaving the software firewalls turned off is best, assuming you are keeping both of them protected behind a hardware firewall like a Belkin, Linksys, or Apple Airport.

The Norton Internet Security is a bundle of software tools that are very aggressive in protecting a Mac, almost to the point of taking the ease of use, and Mac's simplicity, or fun away, and making many "On-Guard" PC type popups appear requesting permission to Scan, Block or otherwise interfere with your work flow while Norton jumps to Warn you about a minor event.

As was written in an earlier post, there are not any viruses or weakeneeses in OS X that warrant such an aggressive bundle as Norton provides unless you are very suspect of being snooped on somehow. Usually a hardware router/firewall is all one needs.

Your last concern, Antivirus from Norton as a separate product is also available for OS X and mostly protects you from sending along a virus from an MS Word or Excel file that a PC user sent with a Virus, or some emails that contain attachments that would not harm the Mac at all, but could make your PC friends resent you for unknowingly forwarding them a tainted email from a PC user who sent it to you in the first place.

The AntiVirus solution that might be most beneficial is to sign up for a .Mac trial account and the free downloads from Apple include a full version of AntiVirus software, I believe it is called Virex. Plus having the .Mac account interfaces with many other great features that tie your Mac to the rest of the built in software such as, iDisk, online data backups, Synchronizing bookmarks and address books between systems, email, web page publishing, games, iPhoto library sharing and numerous freebies they throw in monthly. After the trial I think the 1st year costs $69, and later $99 but you can buy a renewal subscription from Amazon.com for a discount which most people dont know about.

Hope this helps.

please email if you require more exact information

Jonathan
educateme@aol.com

Johnathan,
I had Symantic/Norton installed on my Mac for about three months. Really irritating and slowed down my work-flow. I did an uninstall and my G-4 Mac Server is now working very smoothly. I understand that Symantic was originally designed for the PC and Norton is nothing more than Window dressing. Virex is a Mac designed program.
Food for thought.
Kevin

I guess they are....
All I can say is "Sour Grapes"

The "PC weenie friends" comment was no more warranted than your "Mac snobs" comment.

Hey Kettle? Yeah, um, this is Pot... we need to talk.

I've been using the firewall built into Panther and the free Virex download from .mac for anti-virus. I connect to a wireless network and cable modem at home. As stated previously, there is no spyware currently that affects OSX.

This program will, under os 9, give the unsuspecting user a list of files that Spring Cleaning thinks it no longer needs or that have not been used for a long while.
Being from Norton, a company Mac users used to trust, the average user would accept whatever the program suggested, thinking that obviously Norton knew what they were doing, Click on the Remove button and end up with a machine that was missing dozens of vital and essential files. I have restored at least a dozen machines belonging to people who thought that Spring Cleaning was "doing its job". Norton have dropped the ball too many times over the last few years on the Mac side. So much so that they no longer support, or produce SystemWorks for the Mac.
Of course, that is just my experience.

P

I'm one of those "unsuspecting user(s)" mrmacfixit referred to.

I had started using Spring Cleaning on my 233 Mhz Rev b iMac running os 8.6 just a couple of weeks BEFORE I saw his post. I hadn't noticed anything unusual so I thought I was OK. I'm not. Stuffit expander won't work even when an alias is on the desktop. I get a message saying stuffit expander cannot be found.

Maclinkplus is giving me intermittent problems, too -same error, "can't be found". I used these for years and had no trouble till I ran SC. I'm attempting to work out the bugs and get my system back to normal, but it's taking time. I still have multiple copies of stuff that I have been removing slowly but now I'm more paranoid than ever of removing things. Oh, well, I'll keep at it. If I can't get it resolved soon, I may have to call on mrmacfixit for some additional guidance.

As a note of interest, I had problem with Norton Utilities for Macintosh years ago. Disk Doctor screwed up something on my hard drive and I had to have tech support on the telephone to walk me through correcting the problem using Disk Editor. They said it was a known problem and a fix was coming. I've been a little cautious with Norton ever since.

Dan

but there are alternatives out there.

Take a look at Onyx or Cocktail.

They will do a nice job for you.

How about posting in a nice new thread of your own for this problem?

They one you chose is 5 years old.



P

it just makes it easier to read.

Let us know how you get on


P

Contrary to popular belief, there are a few little nasties that exist in the Mac-world (711 Trojan, Promail Trojan, Subseven, Icq Trojan, Wm Remote Keylogger, etc.) ... that said the chances of you encountering one is slim to none.

There has not been a Mac virus since 2001, but as mentioned in another message, it doesn't hurt to have an Antivirus program. The Mac version of MS Word has been affected by a few Macros, but it's been awhile since I've heard of that happening since.

While I have Virex (free with a subscription to .Mac), I also use a freeware called HoneyPotX2.5 (go to Macupdate.com and do search).

Unlike Windows, the Mac keeps all unused ports closed ... Windows by default keeps them all open. Still, I use HoneyPot to monitor all the ports and when someone tries to hack-in, it will perform a flooding counter strike. It will also automatically send an e-mail to that persons service provider notifying them of their client's activities. Again it's a freeware written by the Underground Mac Programming Team (UMPT).

Bottom line, I'm a cautious person, but to be quite frank, I haven't encountered a virus since 1988 and HoneyPot hasn't detected a hacker since I first started using it 3 years ago. OSX has been stable and the built-in firewall seems to work just fine, even in my 5 year old Mac.

Just enjoy your Mac and welcome to the Mac community.

Baldars,
Nice post! Thanks for the info.
Kevin

I find I need to reestablish a Centris 610, XXX40 through a Supra modem. (don't ask it is embarrassing).

What Norton, or other Antivirus can I use. I have the one used prior to the OS 8.1 upgrade and the NAV 9.0 for 8.1-9.x. on "PowerMac". Of course none of that info was provided until package opened and read Chapter 2; and also discovered paid for the NAV 7.0 a second time for my 9.2. (Oh well the definition subscription had "almost" run out.) Also I don't have Title pages for the product since in my naive times, I submitted paperwork for rebates. If the shelf price isn't competitive, I'll buy from someone else. I know I am not the only customer to feel betrayed, but I guess it took time to stop being an infernal optimist. I continue check out the products as mentioned by MrFixIt and others in each new posting since things "DO" change, right??