It's fair to say that the greatest security threat to Mac users isn't a virus - it's complacency. While the platform is currently an infertile ground for virus authors, that may not always be the case, and Macs can still act as carriers of PC viruses.
Norton AntiVirus, abandoning its version number and freshly updated for Mac OS X 10.5, is a polished way to protect against unforeseen viruses. It's both simple to install - although it requires a restart, we didn't even have to enter a serial number - and very easy to use.
The program's single window clearly displays all protection information under two tabs. The first reveals the program's status, such as when your Mac was last scanned and details of any recent vulnerabilities or viruses that the program has blocked. You can perform a complete virus scan on your disk by clicking a button at the bottom of the window, or configure it to scan specific files only.
AntiVirus proved to be sluggish when performing a full hard-disk scan - managing to make Intego's VirusBarrier X5 appear fast by comparison. Although it used little processing power, it did annexe a chunk of virtual memory. On the plus side, it dealt with virus-infected files impeccably. By default, AntiVirus automatically quarantines suspicious files, so they can't be opened or read by others before you have taken further action.
Under the program's second tab you can tailor how the program continuously scans for viruses. The good news is that background scanning didn't appear to affect system performance, apart from when a CD or DVD was inserted into our test Mac. Here, the program's laborious virus checks will inevitably lead to many users checking the program's limited documentation to find a way of turning it off.
In fact, you can extensively tweak what disks are checked. It can, for example, ignore music or video discs, or iPods. You can also choose specific folders for AntiVirus to watch, which makes particular sense for Mac OS X 10.5 users who use the Downloads folder to collect every bit of downloaded data from the Internet.
One weakness in AntiVirus is the absence of protection against less direct threats to your data, such as phishing websites that attempt to grab your personal or financial information. Protection against such threats is available in another Symantec product, Norton Confidential.
However, what AntiVirus Does offer is vulnerability protection. This isn't the same as firewall protection. Instead, AntiVirus monitors your Internet connection against intrusion attempts that match certain predefined signatures, such as security holes in QuickTime. Again, it works well - it quickly spotted a code-execution vulnerability in Adobe's Flash Player in Safari.
One thing to bear in mind with AntiVirus is that you need to keep its definitions list up to date. Like most competing products, you get a year's subscription to virus definitions with the purchase. Surprisingly, the program didn't automatically update our list when we first launched it. Instead you can update the list either from the AntiVirus LiveUpdate window, launched from the Finder's menu bar or, more tortuously, through a protection configuration field in the program's main window. You can set checks to run on a set day of the month or at chosen recurring intervals.
One strange addition to AntiVirus is a dashboard widget. At first glance it offers a useful check on Symantec's assessment of the current general threat level, as well as a list of the top three latest known threats, with links to more information on the Symantec website. But, almost inevitably, the stated threats apply to PC environments and while the widget warned us of an elevated security threat, we couldn't find the latest threats in the program's latest virus definition list.
There's no doubt that an antivirus application fulfils an important role for those in a mixed PC/Mac environment, or those who regularly exchange Office documents between platforms. AntiVirus is also easy to manage and, though slow to scan, doesn't cripple your Mac's performance when running in the background. But unless your security concerns begin and end with virus protection, Intego's Security Barrier is a more comprehensive way to protect your Mac.
Author: Tom Gorham
MacUser Online