Sophos Anti Virus - free for home users

Not sure if it's been mentioned here before, but Sophos Anti Virus is now free on the Mac for home use.
Sophos download site

In reference to www.theregister.co.uk/2010/11/02/sophos_mac_anti_virus/:

The UK-based firm sees the freebie Mac scanner as a medium-term commitment, even though the product is not there to make money, and it will cost Sophos to run a dedicated support forum and field queries. Unlike freemium scanner outfits such as AVG there are no plans to convert users onto paid-for consumer versions of Sophos Anti-Virus for Mac.

Might be worth considering if you are looking for a virus protection software (I've been using the corporate version for a few years now, with no problems).

Or not.

Thanks very much for the heads-up. Too many Mac users are blindly complacent about the possibility of malware; they would be well advised to take advantage of this offer.

But many more of us are even more aware that commercial solutions invariably make the matter worse.

Anyone with genuine concerns would be better served downloading ClamXav, which has the massive advantage that it is not baitware to lure users into an expensive and pointless "solution".

And to the OP: can you confirm that you are not and never have been connected with Sophos?

Sophos is a well-respected company, particularly in the business sector. That they are making their anti-malware software available to home users is good news. The more companies and organizations researching malware the better.

Several commercial companies provide free solutions in the Windows market without there being any question of them "luring" users into expensive solutions. I've no reason to think that Mac users are any less sophisticated in this respect than Windows ones.

Unless you have any substantiation for your unwarranted slur against the OP I think you should withdraw it. His posting history shows no hint of pushing products for particular suppliers.

I have this free software installed on three Macs and while I still do not believe there to be much of a risk at the moment on this platform, I don't think it does any harm to be careful in the same way that I am careful about everything else on my Macs.

Apart from a few teething problems - I installed it almost as soon as it was released - this antivirus software seems to work very well with little or no obvious impact on performance, and it did catch a Windows virus on a usb stick my daughter brought over and plugged into my Mac Pro.

As far as I am concerned, top marks to Sophos for giving us this free software and even if they do want to tempt us into a paid product later, no one of us is obliged to buy it. Also we often hear complaints about bloatware, but this Sophos offering is far from that I'm pleased to say.

it did catch a Windows virus on a usb stick my daughter brought over and plugged into my Mac Pro

That's one of the advantages of multi-platform software. As well as protecting against native malware it helps to stop the spread of non-native viruses. If you'd emailed that file to someone you would have been spreading a Windows virus - something any good net citizen will want to avoid.

If anyone is interested, there are reviews here of all the available anti-malware products for OS X. You can make up your own mind from this which one is best for your purposes.

Thanks for that, installed and running a scan as I type...

I've used ClamXAV up until now but, although I've no complaints about it, it's one of those programs I've never really got on with... hopefully this will be better.

In reply to a post by ian_c:

And to the OP: can you confirm that you are not and never have been connected with Sophos?

My only link to Sophos is that I have been a very happy (business) customer of Sophos for about 5 years.

Thanks for the reviews page AEP, I'll bookmark for a reference.

Cheers.

Solved the Virus fiasco. LINKY

Thanks for your help, Ian.

I respect Ians valuable advice but I 1: have heard of Sophos in the past, so I am going to run the two of them (ClamXav&Sophos) - I have a backup just in case, but I do not think that there will be any problems.
I DO like to experiment with my favourite MBP.
It's how we all learn, and it doesn't cost a penny.

I'll be letting everyone know how it goes, good or bad.

Thank you to the OP for the info & link, and thanks to everyone else for your valuable, trusted opinions.

I'm running the two just now - it's a no brainer for me.

Unless you have any substantiation for your unwarranted slur against the OP I think you should withdraw it

Try to learn the difference between a slur and a question.

I am perfectly aware of who Sophos are: ever since I switched to OSX 6 years ago they have invariably been the source of all "HUGE NEW THREAT TO THE MAC PLATFORM - OH NOES!!!!!!!!!!! YOUR ALL GOING TO DIE" stories.

They have cried wolf far, far too often.

You might want to find a more up to date review site than about.com (seriously?) since much of the info you link to is out of date or tendentious.

Edited by ian_c (Tue 07-Dec-10 10:31:31)

In reply to a post by ian_c:

Unless you have any substantiation for your unwarranted slur against the OP I think you should withdraw it

Try to learn the difference between a slur and a question.

I am perfectly aware of who Sophos are: ever since I switched to OSX 6 years ago they have invariably been the source of all "HUGE NEW THREAT TO THE MAC PLATFORM - OH NOES!!!!!!!!!!! YOUR ALL GOING TO DIE" stories.

They have cried wolf far, far too often.

You might want to find a more up to date review site than about.com (seriously?) since much of the info you link to is out of date or tendentious.

And that explanation makes more sense to me.

My Brother had emailed me today that my email had a virus [again] - I had scanned and deleted the eicar test objects, and forgot about the quarantine folder that I'd set up.
RV
Sophos NEVER alerted me during the scan today. There's a reason for that though, the scan takes AGES!!

ClamXav scans much faster, ergo, more usefull. I would rather do a quick scan on the MBP than wait FOREVER. It STILL hasn't completed.

Thanks yet again Ian.

I'll be letting everyone know how it goes, good or bad

Good for you.

Have a look at This clicky
The "Pre-install setup" paragraph

I did ask if the comment about running 2 at once was valid, a few days ago, when Goldenoldie was seeking advice on this AV package.

Perhaps you'll be able to tell us when you've researched it yourself

In reply to a post by Guest_Again:

There's a reason for that though, the scan takes AGES!!

Took about two and half hours for around a million and a quarter files here... about half the time that ClamXAV takes.

It picked up a couple of Windows trojans on email attachments, as did ClamXAV, it didn't report a couple of emails that ClamXAV reckoned were phishing... as they were obviously spam they went straight into the junk folder on arrival so I don't know which is right!

In reply to a post by billford:

In reply to a post by Guest_Again:

There's a reason for that though, the scan takes AGES!!

Took about two and half hours for around a million and a quarter files here... about half the time that ClamXAV takes.

It picked up a couple of Windows trojans on email attachments, as did ClamXAV, it didn't report a couple of emails that ClamXAV reckoned were phishing... as they were obviously spam they went straight into the junk folder on arrival so I don't know which is right!

The thing is, ClamXav picked up the eicar testers well before Sophos did. It may have been because of where I'd stored them to test (and forget).

I'm just a bit annoyed. Grateful too I suppose. Going by your post, it's hard to say no to either/or tbh.

It's generally not considred a good idea to run two antivirus programs at the same time. Performance of one, or both, and general performance is likely to suffer.

Do excuse me for reading into your question an implication of Spamming. I realize now that you were merely curious.

In reply to a post by AEP:

It's generally not considred a good idea to run two antivirus programs at the same time. Performance of one, or both, and general performance is likely to suffer.

More good advice. Thanks for that.

I'll maybe keep the pair of them just now, though that's probably a PC thought. ONE should be fine, and I would prefer my first choice.

AV isn't needed the same on a Mac. That was one of the mitigating factors in lappy OS.

I generally only fire up ClamXav if I have what them damned Yankees call "probable cause" - ie I know I've just done something dumb (usually my curiosity getting the better of me and then colliding with spazzy fingers).

I have the Sentry watching my downloads folder and will occasionally scan my mail folders to see who hasn't got properly configured servers (I trash most false negative spam once I have taught Mail.app about it, but occasionally my curiosity get the better of me) and once in a blue moon leave it scanning the whole system overnight.

There have been a couple of very well design phishing expeditions recently. One aping Skype immediately after the new Mac beta was announced, that I almost bit on (spotting the .ru domain just in time) and one, IIRC, Adobe, again straight after some hoo-ha or other.

Now that it has had decent UI attached to it, ClamXav also no longer requires a PhD in Advanced Geekery to get working. Which is nice.

Thanks. I've installed it and it seems to run nice and quietly in the background..

Post deleted by billford