Just bought a MacBook Pro, anti virus suggestions?

[skosh69]

Just like the title says, we bought our daughter a 13" MacBook Pro with Retina display. I did a little research and am getting conflicting results. Some say no anti virus is needed, others claim it's a must.

What say the CG's tech heads?

OBTW, used Apple's education pricing and paid $100 less that retail and got a free pair of Beats Solo 2 wireless headphones.

[billofrights]

Skip it. It's not substitute for a savvy user, your efforts are better spent teaching her not to click on anything suspicious.

If she's living with you at home, don't give her user profile full admin access, that'll help mitigate the chances too.

[Divot]

Sophos for free. Kaspersky or ESET for a paid solution. Anyone that says Macs don't get viruses is mistaken. They do, just not to the same degree as Windows machines.

[deephouse]

Computer geek since 1990 here. You won't need it.


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[jbj]

Sophos. Been running it on all my Macs at work and home for a few years now. Works and it's free.

Most of the crap that happens on a Mac these days is adware/malware (MacKeeper). For that stuff, I occasionally run DetectX or MalwareBytes (both free for home use). Adware will get downloaded by clicking on some site that demands you upgrade your Flash. If you do install Flash, let it do auto updates.

Make sure that auto open after download is turned off. And even a weak password is better than none, as it forces the user to intervene before something gets installed.

Just like hard drive crashes, it's not if but when!


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Jimmy

[skuehl]

I have 4 MacBook pros and two are for daughters. I would definitely recommend it. Both my daughters got Mcafee free from college. I HATE norton. It takes up more resources than most all other apps combined. My wife clicked in a link on our local pizza companies website to order pizza and it was infected with ransom wear. I definitely recommend something after dealing with that.


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[area51]

Computer geek since 1990 here. You won't need it.


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What he said... save your $$

[deephouse]

FWIW I have ran Norton before and found it to be a resource hog. Also another product that was a combination firewall and adware and found it to be too restrictive, having to manage it too frequently.

My suggestion would be to setup A backup solution so that you can rollback up to 5 days. Start with the free products and see how they work for you. GL!


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[waawaaweenie]

I would install Little Snitch and make sure she does not have administrator privileges, only running as a user

[Casual_Shooter]

Been using macs since 1990 for both home and work computers. Tried all of the various options. Sophos seemed to slow things down. McAfee (paid through our internet provider) runs without noticeable issues as does Avast (free).

Over the years, antivirus programs have found maybe 2 or 3 files. None of which caused issues.

As long as the user is aware of phishing scams, most problems can be avoided.

[jbj]

Norton used to be awesome. It's is unmanageable bloatware now. Mcafee was ok as well, but it's gotten behind the times.

I run 4 laptops, 3 towers, and 2 files servers. They all do sound and video editing, so resources are taxed heavily. I also can't have intrusive software popping up when I have a network tv showrunner sitting behind me. I use what I use because they have proven themselves to work and use the minimum system resources (Sophos also monitors your web browsing and warns of infected sites). They also all happen to be free.


Sent from 80ms in the future
Jimmy

[geedavell]

I look at ALOT of stuff that I probably shouldn't on a MacbookPro.
6 Years now, and never an issue!
Save your money

[Iknownot]

ESET works fine on macs. Just because you are using a machine that is not as numerous as PC's, the hackers don't feel like bothering writing malware, doesn't mean people don't. I know people who have gotten a virus on Macs.

For the nominal cost of a virus check program (or free), I figure better safe than sorry.

Just stay away from the heavy resource programs. They are not worth the resource hogging.

[JAvendan]

If you're going to run AV, check with your ISP they sometimes offer free full versions.

I'm w Cox and they offer McAfee.

Joel

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[skosh69]

Thank you for the responses CG'S. Appreciate the help.