Spyware / Virus programs for Apple
 

Are there any free spyware or virus programs for Apple computers? I am having some eratic performance issues w/ my G4 and was wondering if there is something I can run that will give me any indication of any problems.

Thanks

ClamAV is open source.

http://www.clamav.net/

Here's a link for a gui for it.

http://www.apple.com/downloads/macosx/networking_security/clamxav.html

Doubt you have a virus

Thanks very much.

20 years of running Mac's at home and at work. Never had a virus. Don't know anyone who has.

Just brought my Mac Book to the Apple Store thinking I had a virus. The tech guy told there are no virus that attack apple computers.

Download and run Maintenance. I run it every month or so. http://downloads.zdnet.com/abstract.aspx?docid=889939
Also max out RAM while memory is cheap.
I, too, quite doubt you have a virus.

That is Apple hype.

http://antivirus.about.com/od/macintoshresource/Macintosh_Viruses_and_Mac_Virus_Resources.htm

People don't attack the Macs, because they make up something like 4% of computers out there.

Yep, but the increasing hubris of Mac users is making them an increasingly attractive ego target for hackers. Most virus writers/hackers go for the biggest bang (the 90% of the PC market that Windows enjoys). Some like the challenge of knocking a small, arrogant user group off of their perch.

a lot of the nastier viruses are coming out of china and russia. from people who have never even seen a mac up close.

but who the gods would destroy they first make proud. there is nothing inherently invulnerable about these machines.

other than the operating system?

Obscurity is not invulnerability.

No, but a "properly" designed OS with a strong basis in security engineering is a good start.

Without meaning to start a flame or religious war, OS X is a much better designed OS from a security point of view than any win32 OS.

That's a tired and frankly lame argument. Always has been.

Apple sells 5 million boxes a year. That's a pretty small target.

Explain to me why there were a few hundred viruses for OS 9, (OS X's immediate non.nix predecessor) and none in the 10 years OS X has been around with a vastly higher installed base.

Thanks guys, scanned a few things and nothing has shown up. I appreciate the guidance.

Nothing will show up. At this point, there are no viruses or worms that attack OSX. OSX is build on FreeBSD, which has been hammered endlessly for over a decade.

The only threat 'in the wild' came in some pirated software, and required an approval to install -- as does every program on the Mac.

i'm not a student of the Apple operating system, I use it and enjoy the convenience. At my age I find more enjoyment in a few other endeavors as well so OSX is a low priority. I appreciate any guidance that was offered in response to my question.

If you haven't already, try repairing your permissions from the Disk Utility program located in your Utilities folder.

+1

I should have mentioned that. Probably should do it once every 3-4 months.

Done, says all OK so I will presume no problems.

If still acting weird, try resetting PRAM. Google it, you'll find lots of info. When you bring a misbehaving Mac into the Apple Store, this is one of the first things they do. You will have to reset various preferences and system time afterwards.

http://support.apple.com/kb/HT1379

Also, try leaving it running for a day or two without shutting it off or putting it to sleep.

There are a few "behind the scenes" admin tasks that are run every so often, usually at off times, and if they haven't run in a while, they can fire up while you're using it, which will slow things down.

Also, how much disk space do you have free? Try to have at least 10GB free, and I'd recommend investing in a good disk defragmentor and run it every few months.

I've been using Yasu (Yet Another System Utility) to do maintenance & clear caches: http://jimmitchelldesign.com/projects/yasu/

Last two things I can think of - if you are using Time Machine or .Mac sync (MobileMe now), and have an older/slower machine, it can slow down when those tasks are running. I have a G5 iMac and the performance hit is apparent at those times. Though, it is a "slowing down", not an "acting weird" issue. Finally, if you have a family of dust bunnies in the computer, blow them out - don't want to interfere w/ cooling. These are probably not the cause but can't hurt to mention.

Isn't asking about virus protection for the Mac kind of like asking about a body guard for Jack Bauer?

Vacuum them out is a better option. Blowing into with compressed air can force particles into places you don't want them.

LOL.

There have been theoretical Quicktime, email and jpg exploits that could eventually be used to create zombie Macs, but Apple has done a good job of handling those potential threats in occasional OS updates.

Microsoft has made great progress with malware prevention since XP, as seen here:

http://tinyurl.com/cm3to9

Unfortunately, about 70% of businesses are still running XP. The net is that it appears there are about 100,000,000 Windows computers infected worldwide at this moment.