While viruses are not a major risk for Mac users, it’s still prudent to have an anti-virus application installed on your Mac. Sophos offers a free Macintosh anti-virus application for use on home computers. Give it a try.
Why would you need an anti-virus application on your Mac? I can think of a couple of reasons.
- While there aren’t many Mac viruses, there are some Mac OS X Trojan Horse viruses. Additionally, I still occasionally come across some Word Macro viruses also, which were common on Macs in the late 1990s.
- You might receive an email attachment which contains a PC virus. While this virus can’t do any harm to your Mac, would you want to pass this virus on to a friend or family member who has a PC? Sure, that person should have their own anti-virus protection, but it still doesn’t look good that you’re passing on viruses.
If you have business computers you can also use Sophos, but you’d have to buy an initial license. Sophos requires the purchase of a minimum of 3 licenses for about $34 per license. Volume discounts kick in at 10 licenses.
If Sophos’ business license costs don’t fit your budget then ClamXav is another well-regarded anti-virus application. As an open-source project it can be used freely both home and business customers though I hope you would consider supporting it with a donation.
Check out Sophos Anti-Virus or ClamXav. It’s prudent to have an anti-virus application running on your Mac. Either of these applications can detect if your Mac already has any infected files and can prevent you from getting infected in the future.