Mac Security Software Review

Mac OS X has somehow managed to evade the global pandemic of spyware, viruses, and other various malware issues that seems to affect software big and small.

People in the know would predict that this luck won’t last forever, and as Mac’s market share gets bigger, it becomes a more desirable target for the virtual villains.

Mac right now with all the latest security measures from Apple is still vulnerable to a number of exploits.

Of course, spam is a constant inconvenience that doesn’t play favorites in terms of who it targets.

While malware attacks aren’t that common, those that have experienced them know how devastating they can be.

On that note, here is a review of the current security software associated with Mac, which will include reviews of the firewall, antivirus, antispam, anti-spyware, and security suits. This list isn’t completely exhaustive.

Let’s check it out.

Antispam

Nobody using Mac should ever venture forward without using a robust antispam program.

There are some server-based systems that do a pretty good job filtering out spam, but we think that you will get the most accurate results from a service that lets you notify it of the email that you normally receive, therefore altering the software when it comes up with a false negative, or a false positive.

JunkMatcher hasn’t been updated to be compatible with Leonard, so lets take a look at what is compatible with Mac, and worth your time:

1. Intego Personal Antispam X5 – $49.95
2. Purify – $29.95
3. SpamSieve – $30
4. SpamSweep – $25
5. Antivirus

Since May 2008 there haven’t been any Mac OS X viruses that we know of. So, right now, antivirus software is only good for protecting Mac users against theoretical threats.

Of course, only time will tell how well they do if they are actually confronted with a real virus threat.

They can easily filter out Windows viruses, so that you can’t spread them through your emails, but common sense and a half-decent spam filter can already do this.

Honestly, we think that right now you can skip the antivirus software if you are a Mac user.

However, if you can’t bear to do this, and think at some point you’ll be attacked from all angles with some super-virus, there are a few choices out there.

1. Intego Virus Barrier X5. This is potentially the best option out there when it comes to virus protection, but the issue is that it’s more expensive than other choices. Norton AntiVirus was the gold standard for a time there, but now it’s lagging behind.
   
   The other thing to consider is that software like this is usually developed more for larger businesses, as opposed to being used for personal computers. The only one on the list below that we can’t really recommend is ClamXav. It is better than using nothing, but it is really slow, and it doesn’t come with all of the automatic scanning features that other products on the list do, which means that it lacks the definition needed to be used with Mac malware.
   
2. Avast Antivirus Edition for Mac – $39.95
3. ClamXav – free
4. Intego Virus Barrier X5 – $69.95
5. McAfee VirusScan for Mac – $36.55
6. Norton AntiVirus 11.0 for Mac – $49.95
7. Sophos AntiVirus for Mac $27 a seat