Anti-Virus Comparison Test

Reed Thomas, who maintains an excellent Web site on the topic of Macintosh malware (with an associated Macintosh Malware catalog) that I've frequently cited
http://www.reedcorner.net/mmg-threats/
http://www.reedcorner.net/mmg-catalog/

has published online the results of a huge comparison test between a large number of Macintosh anti-virus programs:
http://www.reedcorner.net/mac-av-detection-rates/

You can download the raw data in a table here:
http://www.reedcorner.net/downloads/malware_detections.pdf

Interesting tidbits from the results:
- None of the AV programs were 100% effective at detecting all malware
- ClamXav is surprisingly ineffective
- Sophos AV, Dr. Web Light, and Virus Barrier Express, all free, are quite good
- MacKeeper, MacScan, and Kaperski are all just about worthless

___________________________________________
Randy B. Singer
Co-author of The Macintosh Bible (4th, 5th, and 6th editions)

Macintosh OS X Routine Maintenance
http://www.macattorney.com/ts.html
___________________________________________





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On Nov 30, 2012, at 5:52 AM, "Randy B. Singer" <[hidden email]> wrote:

>
>
> Interesting tidbits from the results:
> - None of the AV programs were 100% effective at detecting all malware
> - ClamXav is surprisingly ineffective
> - Sophos AV, Dr. Web Light, and Virus Barrier Express, all free, are quite good
> - MacKeeper, MacScan, and Kaperski are all just about worthless
>

I haven't installed anti-virus software since we brought home our first Mac, an SE30. But for a while, I've been thinking that I've been engaging in risky behavior. I'm glad to know it would have probably been ineffective anyway.

Marilyn


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On Nov 30, 2012, at 9:56 AM, Marilyn Matty <[hidden email]> wrote:
> I haven't installed anti-virus software since we brought home our first Mac, an SE30. But for a while, I've been thinking that I've been engaging in risky behavior. I'm glad to know it would have probably been ineffective anyway.

I'm not even very sure whether Windows 7/Vista/8 need anti-virus protection either. Microsoft has gotten quite serious about malware in the last few years, and its reflected in the newer versions of Windows. In fact, until Mountain Lion, Windows probably had better security features than Mac OS X.  Besides, Microsoft also is much more proactive of fixing Windows security issues.

Most vulnerabilities are now with third party apps and web plugins such as Flash. It's one of the reasons why I don't have Flash or Silverlight installed on my Mac. (If I need to view a webpage with Flash, I can use Google Chrome.). If I wasn't a developer, I'd probably not install Java either. I certainly don't have the Java plugin in my browser on.

--
David Weintraub
[hidden email]

================================================
Sure, call me crazy. They called Eddie Antar crazy too, but
look at these low, low prices on these name brand appliances.


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The recent dilemma of one of our readers about remembering an Apple  
password brought this article to mind:

http://www.macworld.com/article/2013756/how-to-manage-passwords-with-keychain-access.html

It was from about 3 weeks ago in the Macworld Help Desk newsletter.  Might  
be a useful to others.

Mike


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