Anti Virus and Macs

As many of you know, it has been widely advertised that apple computers do not need anti virus software. We see the Mac ads about how they are immune to infections from trojans, worms, malware, and spyware; but is this really the truth? The answer is NO!! To go about thinking your apple system is immune to attacks from what we call "malicious" files is simply unwise. Especially with Apple's market share growing, we will begin to see more and more wide-spread threats toward our Macs. As a matter of fact, there are already many threats out there. For example:

• Troj/JSRedir-BV:HTML files defy Windows, Mac and UNIX computers, infecting them with Trojans
• MalWebStartA: Cross-platform malware takes advantage of vulnerabilities in Java
• iPH/Duh-A: Malicious worm specifically targets jail-broken iPhones
• Troj/PDFEx-DT: PDF meant to help jailbreak your Apple product (iPhone, iPod, iPad) can introduce exploits to your device

These are just a couple of the many that are known and are out there.

While many don't and won't affect us as Apple users, they still might affect those around us using Windows based computers. So how do we defend our Apples and possibly our Windows friends against these different attacks? One way is to make sure your computer is up to date. Under your apple menu, you will see an option for Software Update. Apple releases very important security updates, and when they do, it means there is a weak spot in your operating system that needs fixed. So run that whenever possible, or when it asks you too!

Another way is to run anti virus software. Here at orange, we have Sophos Enterprise Anti Virus software. It runs both on the Mac and PC, and as time goes you will notice a little sophos icon appear on your mac. We will start pushing the software to our school macs as another way to keep you safe! For your home mac we obviously cant use our school license, but Sophos now makes a home version that is free, and it works!! I've been testing it, and i like it. Here is a link if you are interested in that for your home mac!

http://www.sophos.com/products/free-tools/free-mac-anti-virus/?utm_source=Magnet&utm_medium=Cross-link&utm_campaign=M-CL-SAVpromo

So thats it! Be proactive and make sure you keep your computers up to date! Remember, a good offense is the best defense. If we equip our computers and do our best to stay safe, we will minimize the potential for people messing with our data!