[X-Newbies] Anti Virus Software

[Randy B.Singer]

Vincent Cayenne said:

>I can't see that this addresses his need. The need is to comply with 
>a paranoid admin's insistence on virus protection before admittance 
>to the uni network. Using an antivirus product which ignores the 
>malware of concern to the admin seems like setting up the Mac to be 
>the scapegoat whenever next there is a breach. The admin is already 
>ignoring the facts - why give him/her the opportunity to blame the 
>Mac at some point in the future? When asked "Is the product you're 
>using updated to eradicate latest-Win-virus-of-week-005 which just 
>penetrated our network?", what's this user going to say? Scapegoating 
>is a tried-and-true administrative tool.

There is really no other practical way to address his need.

I don't know of any Mac anti-virus programs that scans for *all* Windows 
viruses, rather than just selected Windows viruses.  Maybe Sophos does, 
their pre-sales information is unclear (they say that they handle viruses 
that are "considered to be a threat," which doesn't sound like they 
handle *all* viruses), but none of the others do (at least according to 
their employees, who I have spoken with about this.)

IS personnel who prefer Windows are probably always going to be biggots 
who scapegoat the Macintosh.  That doesn't change the fact that Windows 
viruses aren't a Mac problem, they are a Windows problem.  Macs don't 
actively (or even passively, usually) spread Windows viruses, so Mac 
anti-viral software doesn't look for all of them.  The threat from a 
Macintosh spreading a Windows virus is almost insignificant.

Windows viruses are a Windows problem.  An IS manager who does not have a 
good Windows anti-virus program, meticulously updated, on every Windows 
machine in his shop, is either grossly negligent or incompetent.  If a 
Windows machine suffers at the hands of a virus, it is invariably the IS 
person's fault for not protecting his Windows machines adequately, not 
due to any threat from Mac's.



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

Routine OS X Maintenance and Generic Troubleshooting
http://www.macattorney.com/ts.html