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Mac OS X  |  Security / Privacy  |  Antivirus  |  iAntiVirus Free Edition  |  Not very good at catching things !

iAntiVirus Free Edition

iAntiVirus Free Edition

Protect your Mac from viruses and spyware.

Version:  1.36

   [ Views: 283 ]

Not very good at catching things !

Feedback Type:  Review

Contributed by: atnjoly Monday, March 16 2009 @ 03:44 AM PDT

Product Platform: MacOSX

Used Product For: 1-6 months

I installed iAntivirus a few month ago, and was well pleased that it did not find anything on my disk, and never gave any warning. But last week, an email I sent bounced because the word document I had attached contained the W97M.Thus.A virus. And that virus can actually spread between word documents on a mac after contaminating your template document !
After a fair bit of searching on the web, I downloaded ClamXav from http://www.clamxav.com/index.php?page=dl , and this did the job of finding the infected files, and a couple of other nasty thing in .exe files attached to junk mails. But it took a long time and it was so heavy on resoources that it was basically impossible to work during the disk check. I guess that is the price to pay for the program to do a proper job.
So, iAntivirus runs smoothly, does not slow down your computer noticeably, and is free, but what use is it if it does not detect even the most standard viruses ? And I tried to contact the developpers to inform them of this, and have had no reply from them what so ever !   
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Comments

2 comments |

Not very good at catching things ! - Jeff Mincey

No security software -- no matter how good it is -- will find ALL malware. This doesn't mean one product is no better than another but only that you shouldn't be so quick to judge on the basis of a single miss such as the one you cite in your post. ClamAV will not protect you against all malware either.

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Saturday, March 21 2009 @ 10:20 AM PDT


Only good for catching MOSX specific malware - zunipus

PC Tools provides a list of what their freeware version of iAntiVirus will find on Mac. The program looks specifically for Mac OS X malware, period. It is totally clueless about ANYTHING that is PC specific or Microsoft Office specific.

Why? It's freeware! Pay for something if you want thorough coverage.

Meanwhile, if you dig around, you can find the malware list for ClamAV. What you'll find is that it focuses almost exclusively on Windows malware and Microsoft Office malware. Its collection of Mac malware definitions stopped dead with Trojan.OSX.RSPlug.A in October 2007. Meanwhile, there have been 6 further versions of RSPLUG. Also missing are Trojan.OSX.PokerStealer.A and TrojanOSX.iServices.A & B. That's 9 missing, and very current, Mac malware. Conclusion: ClamAV is fine for preventing your machine from passing along Windows and Microsoft Office malware. It is essentially WORTHLESS for Mac malware.

I have personally attempted to get someone interested in improving ClamAV for Mac. Instead what I heard back was either contentiousness or total apathy. Therefore, I don't expect the ClamAV situation to change.

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Tuesday, March 31 2009 @ 01:43 PM PDT