You Don’t Need Anti-Virus Software

This is just a reminder.

As a Mac user, you don’t need to be running any anti-virus software.

There are no (none, nada, zip, zero) viruses for Mac OS X.

Do not waste your time, money, and computer resources running anti-virus software.

There are a handful of Trojans that affect Macintoshes.  A virus can spread from computer to computer automatically through e-mails, instant messages, evil web pages, over home and business networks, on thumb drives, etc.  A trojan is a bit of bad software you have to install yourself.

While an effective virus has yet to be written for Mac OS X, no operating system can prevent your installing trojans.  (The only way to do that is to prevent you from installing any applications at all, which kind of defeats the purpose of having a general purpose computer).

Which brings us to the inspiration for today’s post:  There is a new trojan out for the Mac.  Basically it pretends to be a Mac anti-virus application, gets you to install it, and declares your machine is riddled with viruses and other nasties.  For some low low price, you can upgrade the software to remove these nasties.  Click on upgrade, fill out the information, and BAM! they have your credit card info along with your name, address, phone number and everything they need to use it.

This kind of thing is old hat in the Windows world.  But this is the first time it’s been seen for the Mac.

So remember:

• You don’t need any Anti-Virus Software (if you’re on a Mac)
• Never, ever, ever download and install software over the internet unless you are 100% sure of the source.
• Never, ever, ever download and install software over the internet unless you are 100% sure of the source.
• Never, ever, ever download and install software over the internet unless you are 100% sure of the source.

If you want more info on this trojan, you can click here.