Sophos, a world leader in protecting businesses from spam and viruses, today announced the release of Sophos Anti-Virus for Mac OS X, a product designed to protect computers running Macintosh operating system 10.2 and above from all known viruses.
Ideal for multi-national organizations, Sophos Anti-Virus for Mac OS X is available in five languages: English, French, Spanish, German and Japanese. It allows users to perform on-demand scanning of files and folders and its on-access scanner safeguards computers by detecting and disinfecting both Macintosh and non-Macintosh viruses. Any file that is identified as being infected will not be allowed to run, ensuring that the computer remains virus-free.
Keeping anti-virus protection updated is critical and Sophos Anti-Virus for Mac OS X enables the automatic updates of all desktops, whether they are connected to a local area network or to the internet. Remote users can ensure that their systems are up-to-date, even if they cannot access the network, with automatic updates from their company’s website. Reporting can also be sent to a remote location. Sophos Anti-Virus uses Mac OS X’s own SMTP client to send alert messages, therefore if a user is disconnected from the network, messages will queue until a connection is found, ensuring no alerts are lost. This also allows the administrator to be kept abreast of all updating activities and virus incidents.
Unlike anti-virus products from other vendors, Sophos Anti-Virus for Mac OS X offers a central configuration of updating and anti-virus settings, including the ability to manually administer virus identity files. Administrators can create a central installation source and install to all networked Macs automatically using XServer tools such as Network Install to provide automatic updates as needed.
“Despite the popular misconception that Mac users aren’t affected by viruses, Apple customers need to take the virus threat seriously,” said Phil Wood, product manager for Sophos Anti-Virus in the press release. “Sophos’s latest anti-virus solution ensures that all Mac users are protected, whether in the office or on the road, and it also allows third-party developers to incorporate virus-scanning into their own products.”
Users who choose to access the Unix operating system directly on Mac OS X will benefit from the availability of a command line version of Sophos Anti-Virus, allowing administrators to run it through the Mac Terminal utility.
The enhanced security model prevents end users from disabling their anti-virus software. Users need to have administrative rights in order to install and/or remove Sophos Anti-Virus or change any of the System Preferences, including enabling and disabling InterCheck.
More info here.
MacDailyNews Take: In related news, Sophos will also release specialized air traffic control software designed to track pigs in flight in order to better protect flight corridors worldwide.
“Despite the popular misconception that Mac users aren’t affected by viruses, Apple customers need to take the virus threat seriously,” said Phil Wood”
This has got to be the best PR line. It has different meanings at different levels without being an outright lie. That Mac users aren’t affected by viruses is a popular misconception is true since we know that when a Windows virus/worm appears, we get tons of stupid emails and the network we use gets bogged down to a crawl. So we are affected, but not in a direct way. Thus, saying that we are not directly affected by all the viruses out there is not a misconception either. We don’t lose data, we are not a vector for the virus to spread (unless you purposely email the virus), we don’t reboot our computer continuously because of the worm.
But do we need to take virus very seriously when there is no virus for OS X? Anybody using a computer should take virus threat seriously. Not all malwares are in the form of virus and worms. We also have trojans. But trojans depend on the user’s action and if we use common sense, we can avoid problems. Installing this software now is useless since anti-virus apps solve problem after a virus hit because the virus definition file contains virus signatures. That is why it’s bad for Microsoft to solve problems by entering the anti-virus market. You have to stop the problem by making the softwares more secure.
Any sneetches here needing stars tattoed on their belly?
And Doctors are out to make a good living on other people’s woes as well – the difference is a bit obvious.
You people need to quit believing so much in the X-Files re-runs…
SB
APPLE STORE RE-OPENED!!!, Now they are selling Dell Laptops and Dell Jukebox too, iPods are discontinued and will only play WMA + New Microsoft XP for Macintosh is available.
APPLE STORE RE-OPENED!!!, Now they are selling Dell Laptops and Dell Jukebox too, iPods are discontinued and will only play WMA + New Microsoft XP for Macintosh is available.
It’s called now [url=http://www.microsoft-apple.com]http://www.microsoft-apple.com[/url]
Douchebag, what’s your problem? Oh, you’re a douchebag…
I don’t get this. What kind of virus definitions could the Sophos software have, since there aren’t any viruses? As for protecting Windows users, screw ’em! Even MS doesn’t care, as they are not allowing anybody with “illegal” copies of XP to download and install SP2. And why the hell doesn’t Sophos market to the PC crowd, where they could get tons of business?
neomonkey;
You know who cares? Companies that are 90% PC care. I care. My PC colleagues care.
Open your eyes, you narrow-minded DB.
SB
Hypotetical Mac OS X antivirus program: “We have detected that an executable installed itself in the system directory without you entering your admin password . Do you wish to delete this file?”. Click Yes: “Please enter your admin password so we can remove the file.”
Is there something wrong with this picture?
why?
sophos trade names with me