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TICKET ARCHIVE -> OS X system security

rdavis - Feb 20, 2007 - 2:57 am

Hi,

I have been asked to look at the security of the office Mac as I am the only person that uses one at home!

Can you tell me if I should install any third party apps (such as anti-virus) on the machine to ensure that it doesn't leave our network open? I use a Mac at home that has never had any anti-virus or security software installed but my home network doesn't contain anything vital!

I know that Norton do an OSX version of anti-virus but I've not heard good things about their software.

Any advise would be great.

cavaughan - Feb 20, 2007 - 9:08 am

You will definitely want an anti-virus solution, especially if you use any of Microsoft's Office suites for Mac. There are Macro viruses that can attack the Office for Mac installs. Also, here's another possibility. A Mac could download an infected file and put it on the network. Now the virus was for Windows, so the Mac wasn't infected. But as soon as that virus-infected file is on the network..... who knows what'll happen next.
I use Sophos AV and highly recommend it.

rdavis - Feb 21, 2007 - 9:14 am

Thanks a lot, I'll get something installed then. As the mac is almost never on (only used for safari testing) can you suggest a cheap or free anti virus system?

cavaughan - Feb 21, 2007 - 11:43 am

The only free AV solution for OSX that I know of is ClamXav. www.clamxav.com
Wow! I went to the website and see that it has really matured. The one problem I remember with it a long time ago was that it didn't do real-time scanning or on-access scanning. I can't seem to find information as to whether it does it now or not. But there's a new feature called Sentry, which looks like it is built just for that reason. You could try it out and let me know. Oh, but you don't have a virus to test it on, you say? Actually there is a well-known virus test. It's called the eicar test. Go to:
http://www.eicar.org/anti_virus_test_file.htm
and follow the instructions on how to build a test file. It's very simple.
But you know, if all you're doing is testing Safari on that computer, you should have very little to worry about.

rdavis - Feb 23, 2007 - 2:35 am

Thanks very much, I'll try that and see how it goes. I'll update this ticket to let you know some time next week.