I’ve never been a huge fan of antivirus software and that is one of the several reasons I use a Mac as my primary computer. I realize that simply owning a Mac doesn’t prevent me from all malware attacks, but it does reduce my chances. Additionally, since I consider myself to be more in-tune to malicious attempts such as phishing emails and other tricks to get users to install malware on their systems, I’ve always felt reasonably safe and therefore I haven’t been using anti-virus software on my Mac for years.
My thinking has changed considerably however now that a crimeware kit has been found to be for sale on multiple websites. Crimeware kits such as the popular ZeuS kit have been for sale for years to people that wish to create malware for criminal activities such as identify theft and botnets. I’ve never been too worried about malware created using these kits because they only targeted vulnerabilities in Microsoft Windows operating systems. This new crimeware kit has been specially crafted to target Macs and the OS X operating system.
Simply put, this means that criminals have very easy to use tools to create all kinds of malware that targets web browser vulnerabilities running on OS X. Our days of carefree Internet surfing are likely to come to an end very quickly.
So what are Mac users to do? Well, unfortunately, it’s time to look into purchasing and installing some antivirus software. I hate the idea just about as much as you do, but fortunately, anti-virus has gotten considerably better over the years. There are two different products that I recommend and will probably end up installing one of them on my Mac. The first is Norton. Most people have heard of Norton and it is fairly respected. I have had some bad experiences with Norton malfunctioning in the past on PC systems but most people say the Mac version is fairly painless. The other Mac antivirus I’m recommending and what I will likely end up installing on my Mac is BitDefender 2011 Antivirus software. BitDefender has been around for a long time and their software seems to be one of the best for the Mac. Just remember that whatever version of antivirus you run, the license you buy will only be good for one year. After that one year point, you need to purchase another 1 year license. If you don’t, your Mac won’t be updated with the latest virus updates.
One great deal going on now for Mac AV software is through MacMall. You can click on the ad below for BitDefender to order it through their site. The great thing about this deal is that you get a 2 year subscription instead of one. That means you get a discount in price AND don’t have to worry about a license upgrade for two years!
