Do I Need Avast Or Other Virus Programme On My Mac ?

[skippybangkok]

Hi,

new to Mac's, recon its a fable about they dont get virus's, although i do feel there are more secure than a Pc.

any advice

thanks.

[nikster]

No

There's no shortage of peddlers of snake oil online who will try to sell you AV software though.

They'll even make you believe you are infected, or need to be scanned, or whatever.

The reality is that there were some pieces of malware last year, and Apple in response has improved the built-in virus protection. It's basically a blacklist of programs that won't get run on Macs.

Of the little malware there is / was, most of it needed to be installed by hand too. So a website will fool you into installing something, or you download some pirated software that also install a virus.

But the short answer is no, you do not need anti virus software.

[skippybangkok]

No

There's no shortage of peddlers of snake oil online who will try to sell you AV software though.

They'll even make you believe you are infected, or need to be scanned, or whatever.

The reality is that there were some pieces of malware last year, and Apple in response has improved the built-in virus protection. It's basically a blacklist of programs that won't get run on Macs.

Of the little malware there is / was, most of it needed to be installed by hand too. So a website will fool you into installing something, or you download some pirated software that also install a virus.

But the short answer is no, you do not need anti virus software.

Thanks......

of course pirated software is a big no no to start with...... just saying

[VerbalKint]

used macs since 1987, never had a virus, never seen a virus, did hear a lot of rumors

[JusMe]

I've been using Apple since the old IIe, and Macs ever since. That's in the early 80s.

Loads of downloading and internet use.

Once, sometime way in the past, I got a bit of a joke that turned everything on my screen backwards. Took me a couple of hours to find it and trash it.

Otherwise, no problems whatsoever. Occasionally I do run a virus check, but it always comes up empty.

[natas]

NO

Only real threat on a Mac is a Trojan. And there is no cure for stupidity, if you download something you don't know what it is and ignore the 2-3 different warning signs and install and your screwed. They are extremely uncommon anyway, find one and you should probably play the lottery!

[Sheryl]

I'm using a Mac and have an evident bit of malware. Keep getting a message that purports (falsely) to be from Facebook saying my flash app needs to be updates and trying to take me to what seems to be a hoax software site.

What best to use to remove it?

And no, I have not downloaded anything stupid that I know of.....

Already tried Bit Defender for Mac, no joy.

[Sheryl]

Well found a long discussion of the "Flash virus" online, apparently hundreds of thousands of Macs have been recently infected, discussion here:

http://reviews.cnet.com/8301-13727_7-57410096-263/how-to-remove-the-flashback-malware-from-os-x/?tag=txt;title

However running the suggested commands in Terminal does not find the files mentioned. Nor am I having any problems other than the continued interference of messages trying to persuade me to go to a (fake) site and download (fake) software. So I suspect that the virus has not yet succeeded in installing itself but whatever the vulnerability is that lets t do so is enabling its repeated attempts.

I'm using Firefox and suspect whatever it is, is in Firefox somehow.

Suggestions? Already tried DefendMac and Bit defender, no luck.

[Sheryl]

Not exactly an overwhelming response here.....

meanwhile I "reset" Firefox and that seems to have done the trick at least for now.

[RichCor]

Not exactly an overwhelming response here.....

meanwhile I "reset" Firefox and that seems to have done the trick at least for now.

If a reset of the browser settings resolved the issue then it probably wasn't a virus, trojan or malware (at least not by definition) and probably was a java or javascript exploit.

Still, you might want to do a time-based search of your system and look for any files that were changed from the time the issue began to now.

And clear the browser cache and cookies.