Thread: Does the Mac Mini need Antivirus Software?

Need help.....Norton is bugging me to purchase their antivirus protection. I've had a Mac for a number of years now and when I bought it I was told that it wouldn't need protection. Am I better off or does nothing change if I choose to go with Norton in this case? The way it was explained to me was that the Mac's are harder to hack and thus criminals tend to go elsewhere, where the pickings are easier. Still this isn't a 100% guarantee in my mind.

Macs need virus protection just like any other computer. A long time ago Macs could claim to not need virus protection just because they weren't popular or numerous enough to be targets. As soon as they started claiming that though, they made themselves targets.

Now, I don't use Macs, so I can't really answer your question in any more detail than that. Apple may have some first party antivirus software (Microsoft does) that may or may not be better than Norton (IIRC, Norton isn't that great) but since it's not something I've tested or looked in to, I can't really say which to use.

Have you had any security issues with the Mac?

It depends a bit on how old your operating system is.
Recent versions of OS X (stands for Operating System 10) have an antivirus/antimalware system installed that is supposed to update itself once a day.

If you want a virus scanner that you can use to see if your machine is infected ClamXav is free and pretty good.
ClamXav will detect threats to Windows as well as Mac.

ClamXav

Originally Posted by GiantEvil

Have you had any security issues with the Mac?

None. I run a virus scan every now and then and nothing has turned up.

Recent versions of OS X (stands for Operating System 10) have an antivirus/antimalware system installed that is supposed to update itself once a day.

That's what I have.

I am an Apple girl, I have never once needed anti-virus protection for any of my Macs.

As mentioned Mac's are notoriously virus free, due to a lack of caring on the part of the virus creator. They go for the platform with the most users and holes.

I'd still recommend anti-virus software, as there are still malicious code out there that are cater towards Macs as well.