TechVirtuoso

Sophos releases full featured Mac OS anti virus for home users

November 2nd, 2010 at 11:49 AM  No Comments

We’ve covered this before: the need for Mac users to secure their systems with a proper antivirus. But unlike the Windows space, there are not many/any really good, small footprint AV clients that are free. Until now.

Sophos has released a free client for Mac, based on their popular business product, which you can download from their website.

“While most businesses recognise the importance of protecting their Mac computers from malware threats, most home users do not,” said Chris Kraft, product management vice president at Sophos. “By offering free industrial-strength security to home users, we aim to protect Mac users against today’s and tomorrow’s Mac threats. Everyone knows that Macs are beautiful computers – Sophos wants to lend a hand to keep them that way.”

Is imitation always a form of flattery?

October 25th, 2010 at 9:52 PM  No Comments

I have seen many different viruses pose to be a security suite on a users machine, requesting them to put in their credit card info and preventing them from surfing the Internet until they do.  This practice is not new, but I think this is the first time I have seen a virus mimic a current security software to instate some credibility into their scam.

At the Windows Team Blog Eric Foster is reporting about a trojan that takes a page from these other well known scams and puts it’s own twist on it.  It actually mimics Microsoft’s free AV Solution, Microsoft Security Essentials except it prompts the user to install other security software and requests a credit card number.

Has Microsoft reached general acceptance of their security suite, enough for malware writers to start exploiting the name and the design?  Should companies like McAfee be worried?  I think so.