Mac Owners: How many of you use an antivirus/firewall?

[egan.]

When there was that scare earlier this year I was required by the IT to dept to put McAfee on my MBP. Honestly the only difference is my boot time is longer now.

 

[Line666]

I don't even use an antivirus on my PC (gave up caring) I've not had anything dodgy in near two years. (I do periodically download something, check then get rid of it again)

NO PROTECTION YO.

 

[Code001]

I don't trust this old argument. As if no hacker ever tried. It would make so much noise if a decent virus was developed for mac (last one, Flashback, only infected a few hundred thousand computers, and was removable with a simple executable, or the next java update). I don't think that no decent hacker ever tried it. We're a billion people using internet everyday, there must be legions of hardcore unix hackers in the middle who would find this a very nice challenge. I don't say it's absolutely safe from viruses, but it seems like the way the system is closed, the growing tendency for sandboxing, etc, makes it more difficult. Which joins your argument that it's less profitable. But I do think it's because of the OS itself, not just the number of units especially now that everyone knows someone who bought a 13in MB or a MB Air.

Reading 9gag these days is enough to be convinced so many people would just love to see Apple badly hit in its pride, as well.

The argument doesn't work because OS 8 and OS 9 were plagued with viruses, and their user base was even smaller than OS X. Even today, 13 years after the first OS X was released, there are no actual viruses. There are some trojans, worms, spyware and keyloggers that have been created, but there are no actual viruses. People love to throw the term "virus" around, but they really don't know what it means. It's probably why the term "malware" was coined. Just like how people love to throw around the term "hacker."

This'll help those who want to know the differences between them all:
http://www.antivirusware.com/articles/viruses-trojans-worms-spyware.htm

 

[Kazrog]

I always keep the built-in firewall enabled in Mac OS X. Beyond that, no other precautions. No problems in all my years of using Mac OS X.

 

[electricred]

There are Mac viruses actually, but these are usually shut down or there are updates long before they become a problem. Apple really stays on top of their shit.

 

[updog]

i have an anti-virus program installed, which i've ran like two times during the four years i've had a mac, one scan after about two years and the second one recently. came up with zilch. and i look at all kinds of disgusting shit online.

 

[Chainsaw Calligraphy]

Thanks for all the replies guys, it's good to get a straight answer on this.