Initial Thoughts:
This is a rare sight. Sophos has just released the first free antivirus for Macs. But some may ask why does a Mac need antivirus? Well, Mac’s are continuing to grow in market share and therefore becoming a more juicier target for hackers. In addition, users with Mac’s probably tend to be of a higher socioeconomic status again making users a more attractive target for bank Trojans and other information stealing programs.
This is not only the first free Mac antivirus that Sophos has released but it is also their first free antivrus released. This is why the I would like to comment on some suspicions surrounding this release. First of all, Sophos hasn’t provided any free antivirus protection for PC’s ever, so that can’t be their goal to provide something for free. Second, I am sure this is a PR event for Sophos. They will first release the free antivirus to garner attention towards their product then release paid versions. Sophos claims that Apple hasn’t addressed the problem and that this in turn has created insecurity. However, there are some legitimate uses for this Mac version. First the program can detect PC and Mac viruses, so one won’t be sending viruses to their friends and family. Finally, a user could setup a Mac gateway for their PC network and technically get free Sophos antivirus for all of their PC’s.
Testing:
Sophos Antivirus for Mac is about a 58 megabyte download. After the download simply run the .dmg file. The program has a very intuitive installation screen and requires about 200 megabytes of memory to install. Once installed, the program doesn’t really have an interface. The protection is indicated by a Sophos shield in the top right hand corner of the screen. The user can have access to the quarantine where malicious files that are detected will be displayed. Finally, I feel bad for all of the users that previously paid for Sophos Antivirus protection on their Macs.
