I’ve been busy for the last few days, but I had enough time to add some new protection to my Mac in the form of antivirus software.
You read that correctly.
Here’s the deal. There are threats out there for Macintosh. Most of them are trojans and you need some sort of protection from them and other threats that may appear in the future. The good vibes of Steve Jobs is not going to be enough to keep Macs safe and Apple seems not to have done much with the antivirus software that was rumored to be built into Snow Leopard, so that means Mac users will have to fend for themselves. The good news is that Mac users have a free option that works well. ClamXav is a free and open source antivirus option that has been included in Mac OS X Server for years now. The scan engine takes very little CPU power and the entire application. Configuring the application takes a bit of work, but it’s doable by novices. Once configured, it will scan your hard drive automatically and it will check your incoming e-mail for anything “nasty.” While the app is free, the author does ask for donations. So if you use it, please consider flipping the author a couple of bucks.
So if you’re a Mac user, you should install a copy of ClamXav sooner rather than later. As more virus writers target the Mac platform, Mac users are going to need protection, and the price for ClamXav is hard to beat.