Is antivirus/firewall software necessary onOS X?

Hi,
recent switcher here, trying to get to grips with Mac OS X security.
One hears/reads a lot about how Macs don't suffer from viruses/spyware and how the firewall built into OS X is rock solid. And yet companies like Intego, McAffee, Symantec etc all seem to offer anti-virus/internet security packages for OS X. And various review sites (incl. Macworld) seem to rate them.
So, is such software really necessary for Mac? If so, what would you recommend?
Cheers,
Simon
Mac Pro Mac OS X (10.4.8)

Hello Simon.
You will receive a number of differing views on the subject of using antivirus software with OS X but regarding the built-in Firewall included with OS X, it is industrial strength so don't waste your money on additional Firewall software.
Keep the built-in Firewall on and don't enable any ports/services that aren't required.
Go to System Preferences > Sharing and select the Advanced button under the Firewall tab to select the following:
Block UDP Traffic
Enable Firewall Logging
Enable Stealth Mode
And then the OK button to save the changed settings.
If you decide to use anti-virus with your Mac, it shouldn't take the place of what lies between your ears.
Just as when using Windows, you should never open a message attachment received from someone you don't recognize, don't use P2P software to download files from someone you don't know, download software or anything from a reliable source only and a big difference between Windows and OS X is you will be prompted for your admin password before anything can be installed on the root directory of the drive. If out of the blue you are prompted for your admin password for any reason without intentionally installing anything, you should always decline.
Since you can forward an attachment received from someone else (which you should also be very careful when doing and avoid doing if at all possible), I use a free anti-virus software package for OS X called ClamXav set to automatically scan my Mail folder only since I use the Mail.app.
You can download ClamXav here.
http://www.clamxav.com/

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Read the following:
Do You Need Anti-Virus Protection for Your Mac?
According to Rich Mogull's article, Should Mac Users Run Antivirus Software?,
"The reality is that today the Mac platform is relatively safe. There are hundreds of thousands of viruses and other malicious software programs floating around for Windows, but less than 200 are known to target the Mac, and many of those are aimed at versions of the Mac OS prior to Mac OS X (and thus have no effect on a modern Mac).
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Do I need antivirus and firewall software for my MacBook Pro?

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Krwest
Welcome to the world of Mac - I hope you will like it here
I came from the Windows world some years ago and have never regretted the switch - on the contrary. I love the ease of use, stability and security of OS X.
There are a lot of opinions regarding whether you should use antivirus and/or third party firewall on a Mac.
I was used to having all the security I could, so to speak, on my Windows machines, and with good reason - my antivirus program stopped "nasties" on more than one occasion.
With OS X I have never quite felt the need to install antivirus. One reason for this is that there are very few, if any, viruses or other "nasties" in the wild for OS X. Another is that OS X works differently from Windows and is less vulnerable (but not invulnerable!).
Regarding firewall, I have found OS X own firewall to be sufficient since I also have a router with built in firewall on my network.
That said, there are those who suggest that we should install an antivirus program if most of those we communicate with run Windows. This is in order to avoid unintentionally spreading viruses to them, viruses that may not affect us but might affect a Windows machine.
In addition, OS X in not invulnerable, and there are those who think Apple might be more open to peoples interest in writing "nasties" for OS X if the market shares increase enough. Then again - it is all speculation and no one knows what the future brings.
I am very security conscious, but would tend to agree with those who suggest that a third party firewall and an antivirus program is not strictly necessary.
Should you still want to have added security, I would suggest antivirus and stick to OS X own firewall.
Two excellent antivirus programs for OS X are ClamAVX (free) and Intego VirusBarrier X5 (pay) (Intego also has firewall and anti-spam solutions). They put little strain on the computer and are considered among the best.
http://www.clamxav.com/
http://www.intego.com/
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i'm not too familiar with using mac. does anyone have suggestions for antivirus/spyware software, if any?

poyiboy wrote:
does anyone have suggestions for antivirus/spyware software, if any?
Yes, don't use it. There are no viruses and whatever you do don't touch Norton.
While there are no known viruses that attack Mac OS X at the present time, it is possible for spyware to get onto your Mac.
So I go to lenghts to protect my user. A hosed system can be replaced but a compromised user folder is compromised forever. Along with all your important data like bank records, credit cards, ... I.e. your "identity" stolen.
The best way to avoid that is by using your built-in firewall which is industrial strength and/or a hard wired router, downloading only from "trusted" sites, installing all security updates and being careful about what you give administrative power to. It is also recommended to run day to day tasks from a non-admin account.
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Hope this helps.
-mj
Message was edited by: macjack

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I recently turned on the built-in firewall on my MacBook Pro. Ever since doing so, every time a run iTunes, get the following message:
[quote]
Your computer is using firewall software that prevents
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[/quote]
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Is antivirus/firewall software necessary onOS X?

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