14 DAY TRIAL // The number of Mac users is continuously growing and recent studies show that there were 7.48% users in March 2008 and in January 2009 their number reached 9.93%. With such a constant increase, many developers release cross-platform applications that work both on Microsoft’s Windows and Mac OS X.
Even though viruses didn't represent a problem until recently, I am pretty sure that in the near future, the amount of Mac malware will grow along with the number of users. In the last month, six new Mac viruses made their appearance on the Internet, but they are really easy to spot and you have to be a super-rookie to accidentally install one.
There are several antivirus programs developed for Mac, and one of them is MacScan from SecureMac. Whether you're an experienced user or a beginner, you should install this on your system, just to be on the safe side.
The Looks
When opening the application, you are presented with an alert window where you can choose whether you want MacScan to run in authenticated mode or not. In the authenticated mode you are able to scan all files, regardless of their permissions, but this requires the administrator password from you. The main window of the application offers a really simple interface where you can easily see the Scan button and the other functions.
The Works
There are four types of scans that you can perform on your Mac: quick scan, full scan, custom scan and web files. The Quick Scan function will check all the files and folders located in /Users/your-username/. The Full Scan will simply cover everything you have on your Hard Disk and it is recommended to start the application in authenticated mode, to make sure that absolutely all the files will be scanned. Unfortunately, the Demo version of MacScan doesn't allow you to perform a custom scan on specific folders or external devices.
With the Web Files feature you can select the web browsers that are currently installed on your system and choose the files that you want to clean: Cookies, Downloaded Files List, History and Temporary Cache Files. You can easily delete these files yourself from the Settings of each web browser. MacScan doesn't provide a different way of cleaning those files; instead MacScan is useful if you're constantly using more browsers at the same time and you want to clean your tracks on all of them.
Upon clicking on the Info button, MacScan displays a list of the current viruses that can be detected. Select any of them and you can read important information about what it does and how it acts. You can also set the application to perform scans at a certain time of the day. When using the Scheduler function, make sure you set the time (select AM or PM) and the days when MacScan should scan your system.
If you're an experienced Mac user and you're using a KeyLogger application, MacScan will detect it and open an alert window where you can choose to remove it or not. This alert is not necessary, but it's good to know of its existence just to be on safe side. From the Preferences menu you can choose to 'Detect remote administration programs' and 'Automatically check for program updates'. MacScan continuously offers updates of virus definitions to keep you informed and protected at all times.
While testing the application, I was really surprised to find some Firefox tracking cookies on my machine. Actually, this shouldn't be such a big surprise, since I'm visiting hundreds of web pages each day. I never even bothered to think of the possibility that I might get my Mac infected until I saw MacScan's results. So, this test made me a believer and also made me realize that Mac viruses are out there, and you could easily get infected.
The Good
The Bad
The Truth
If you are an average user who doesn't install all kinds of applications then MacScan is not a must-have program, and you can do well without it. This also applies if you're a professional Mac user who knows what he's doing.
Here are some snapshots of the application in action:
