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Ask HN: Is no anti-virus software still best practice for mac?

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Re: Ask HN: Is no anti-virus software still best practice for mac?

#21

Post by azinman2 »

AnIdiotOnTheNet wrote: post #16

It is my considered opinion that "no anti-virus" is still the best practice for nearly everything. About the only place it makes any sense is in your email filters or anywhere else the public can send random bullshit. At best they incur an ever present performance hit while only catching the lowest of low-hanging fruit. At worst they are constantly getting in your way with false positives (which train you to ignore a…

“Most people aren't as dumb as your ego likes to imagine them to be. They may not know the details of how their computers work but they know sketchy looking crap when they see it.”

That’s simply not true. Like, at all. If it were, then viruses and malware wouldn’t be spreading like they are, especially phishing campaigns. I know many very smart people who have been compromised.

I also take issue with the word “dumb” — “smart” people can be caught off guard as well. Not everything looks sketchy, as good phishing does everything right to make you think it’s all ok.

It’s a really difficult type of software to create, and perhaps there’s room for new computer vision type anti-viruses to find look-a-like websites, but normal humans need all the help they can get!

Re: Ask HN: Is no anti-virus software still best practice for mac?

#22

Post by czbond »

drdaeman wrote: post #14
czbond wrote: post #13

If you are an employee or contractor - your risk is higher than you might think. As an employee, if you do 'non-work' activity on your laptop that compromises it's integrity - you could be at actual monetary/legal risk. I would highly recommend you have one. Also, as a contractor you run a higher risk. With Mac, configure your built in firewall. Run a "paid for" version of Bitdefender or other. Use VPN ad blocking. U…

> Use LTE connections, not wi-fi, for VPN connections I'd get it for non-VPN, but for VPN connections - how does it matter? As long as peers properly authenticate each other, of course. > If you are an employee or contractor - your risk is higher Higher than whose risk?

Great question. For 'in flight' connections like a VPN, it is harder. I would most likely try to be "same network"... so I'd find them at a coffee shop and try to compromise the dev machine on the network, social engineer/phish, or if the dev was at home and I needed in, I'd try to impersonate their home WAP, or I'd try compromise their machine to cross a tunnel or look for codebases, etc. Edit: Totally derailed the topic, my bad.

Re: Ask HN: Is no anti-virus software still best practice for mac?

#23

Post by wand3r »

I use objective-see suite of products like little snitch (well their new open source version named something different), knock-knock, block-block and kext-viewer. They are all free and let you know what is going on without tryinb to manage everything. They also have a simple menu item that lets you know if youre camera is hijacked. I like their sodtware

Re: Ask HN: Is no anti-virus software still best practice for mac?

#24

Post by 45h34jh53k4j »

you need AV on your corporate macs. No excuses.

For those in "my enterprise doesnt need AV, because AV is stupid" camp: In the last week, the enterprise AV:

* Blocked 15 cryptominers * Blocked 3 email based ransomware attachments * Blocked 6 phishing emails * Blocked 3 installs for MacKeeper (PUA) * Found 4 other adware-type infections on hosts

Without it, these things would have hit the organisation. AV -- it will catch the lowest hanging fruit. You need this. It is necessary, but not sufficient.

Re: Ask HN: Is no anti-virus software still best practice for mac?

#25

Post by johnklos »

Macs are excellent about making it difficult to run and install things, accidentally or otherwise. If someone can't listen to simple instructions about not "updating Flash" or not installing a "PDF plugin", anti-virus isn't going to stop them. In cases like that, it's better to focus on the problem, not the symptom.

To pick some nits, viruses are self-replicating. There are no viruses on Macs (yet). There are tons of Trojans. It's a big and important difference, but we obviously can't count on sensationalistic media to care about the difference. The more technical people here on HN, though, should know and care.

Re: Ask HN: Is no anti-virus software still best practice for mac?

#26

Post by 45h34jh53k4j »

AnIdiotOnTheNet wrote: post #16

It is my considered opinion that "no anti-virus" is still the best practice for nearly everything. About the only place it makes any sense is in your email filters or anywhere else the public can send random bullshit. At best they incur an ever present performance hit while only catching the lowest of low-hanging fruit. At worst they are constantly getting in your way with false positives (which train you to ignore a…

This attitude is so completely negligent I dont even know where to start. Its dangerously misinformed. ('i never caught a virus, why bother'). AV catches the low hanging fruit. If you do not have it, you will forever be poisoned by that low hanging fruit.

Re: Ask HN: Is no anti-virus software still best practice for mac?

#27

Post by blowski »

binaryanomaly wrote: post #9

Have one but never needed it so far - or it didn't catch the virii ;) I use bitdefender at least it's quite unobtrusive on mac (sick of the windows version!). Sophos is free and afaik not too bad if you need one: https://home.sophos.com/free-mac-antivirus Further I use: - https://objective-see.com/products/knockknock.html - https://objective-see.com/products/oversight.html - https://objective-see.com/products/blockbl…

OT, but your pluralisation of virus made me stumble upon the following article:

http://www.ofb.net/~jlm/virus.html

Re: Ask HN: Is no anti-virus software still best practice for mac?

#28

Post by beams_of_light »

AnIdiotOnTheNet wrote: post #16

It is my considered opinion that "no anti-virus" is still the best practice for nearly everything. About the only place it makes any sense is in your email filters or anywhere else the public can send random bullshit. At best they incur an ever present performance hit while only catching the lowest of low-hanging fruit. At worst they are constantly getting in your way with false positives (which train you to ignore a…

At worst, AV is an increase in attack surface, as detailed in the CIA wikileaks.

Re: Ask HN: Is no anti-virus software still best practice for mac?

#29

Post by [deleted] »

azinman2 wrote: post #21
AnIdiotOnTheNet wrote: post #16

It is my considered opinion that "no anti-virus" is still the best practice for nearly everything. About the only place it makes any sense is in your email filters or anywhere else the public can send random bullshit. At best they incur an ever present performance hit while only catching the lowest of low-hanging fruit. At worst they are constantly getting in your way with false positives (which train you to ignore a…

“Most people aren't as dumb as your ego likes to imagine them to be. They may not know the details of how their computers work but they know sketchy looking crap when they see it.” That’s simply not true. Like, at all. If it were, then viruses and malware wouldn’t be spreading like they are, especially phishing campaigns. I know many very smart people who have been compromised. I also take issue with the word “dumb”…

[deleted]
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