What Anti-virus should I run on my iMac?

[The_Prodigy1982]

Next week my very first iMac (27 inch, 5K) will be delivered to my front door... and I'm wondering, what kind of AV should I use?
I have absolutely no experience with OSX yet, so I'm kinda in the wild in the area I guess.

- On my current Windows system, I'm running Emsisoft Internet Security, and I really love it.
But it's not available for OSX.
Does OSX even require AV??

 

[SprSynJn]

I don't think you need one. I haven't used one in the eight years I've used OS X. I don't know many others that do either.

 

[HankAZ]

Next week my very first iMac (27 inch, 5K) will be delivered to my front door... and I'm wondering, what kind of AV should I use?
I have absolutely no experience with OSX yet, so I'm kinda in the wild in the area I guess.

- On my current Windows system, I'm running Emsisoft Internet Security, and I really love it.
But it's not available for OSX.
Does OSX even require AV??

I don't run any AV software on my Macs. At one point, I installed ClamXav and ran it a few times, but no longer. And ClamXav used to be a free option but they recently went commercial.

Just exercise good judgment when surfing and opening files, and you should be OK. In over 5 years of running OS X, I've yet "catch" anything.

 

[JOSH_WH1TE]

We've never ran AV on our Mac's and we have never had issues.

 

[taz323]

Haven't use one yet on my Mac"s, but congrats, enjoy your new Mac.

 

[nhlfreak9]

I use webroot it's great

 

[SprSynJn]

Apologies, in my post above I said I do not use antivirus software. That is not true. I use the free Bitdefender Virus Scanner on the Mac App Store. I scan my drive once a month on average, but I have never found any threat.

 

[kch50428]

Viruses on Mac are not commonplace... the vulnerability that any system connected to the internet has is via malicious ads in web browsers and something like AdwareMedic is a good thing to have and run regularly.

 

[Scatabrain]

Knowing what is truly safe to download and install and knowing what is safe to browse is usually enough on a Mac for most people.

Settings -> Security -> Allow Apps downloaded from:

- Mac App Store (safest setting)
- Mac App Store and identified developers (fairly safe - but must be cautious)
- Anywhere ( Not Safe - only use if you are a developer and you probably wouldn't be asking about anti-virus in a forum )

Other tips: (my opinions)
- stay with Safari - Apple plugs security problems quickly and is best on battery anyway
- remove plugins - Flash, Java, Silverlight or any other 3rd party browser plugin. Unless you absolutely positively need them for a program where there is no other option. For most people the parts of the web that need these plugins are actually to enhance ads and don't benefit you directly at all. They slow down the web and waste your computers resources. These plugins are a big target for getting problems as they are often riddled with well known flaws and are part of web browsing. Just get rid of all of them to be safe. If your word press admin or etsy label maker uses them - find another way. You will be safer for it.

Look for new El Cap coming soon that increases security even more and decreases potential damage they can cause.

Cheers

 

[Scatabrain]

Next week my very first iMac (27 inch, 5K) will be delivered to my front door... and I'm wondering, what kind of AV should I use?
I have absolutely no experience with OSX yet, so I'm kinda in the wild in the area I guess.

- On my current Windows system, I'm running Emsisoft Internet Security, and I really love it.
But it's not available for OSX.
Does OSX even require AV??

Good luck and congrats on your new machine!

 

[jnew619]

You can use suros google it I might have spelled it wrong it's pretty good better to be safe then sorry