Technical Storyteller
I was sitting near Rockefeller Center, watching the Saks light show and 10,000 of my closest friends recording it on their iPhones, when I caught this scene, literally at my feet. Good things are like that sometimes – all we have to do is open our eyes and see what’s there.
A very Merry Christmas to you and yours. May we all know the grace and mercy that came to us on that night of hope so long ago.
Macs get Malware. There, let the flames begin. There’s still an impression that Macs are somehow immune and you don’t need any sort of protection. While it’s true that viruses are very rare, malware (i.e. anything I don’t want running on my system) is quite common. So what’s the state of Mac Antimalware these days?
Back when I ran windows, buying antimalware software was a no-brainer. But the mac has been different – there’s far less malware, the OS is harder to infect (though Windows 10 closed a lot of the gap), and Apple does a decent job with XProtect of killing the truly malicious software that’s been discovered. If you remove Java and Flash (you should) and stay off the seedy side of the Internet, your risk of infection is pretty low.
Yet in the past month, I’ve removed malware from two of my friends’ macs. One was a bit out of date (and had several infections) but the other was current and fully patched. In both cases it was a form of adware – something that monitored all internet traffic, phoned home, and inserted ads on web pages. At least one appears to have been installed from a malicious phishing link, but the others infection path wasn’t clear. After removing it, they both asked me about installing antimalware software, and that’s a challenge.
Over the past year I’ve been searching for a solution that would provide key features:
Unfortunately, in my search, I’ve yet to find a package that does it all. I looked at nearly every vendor, including Norton, Kaspersky, Bitdefender, Intego, Trend Micro, Sophos, ESET and Malwarebytes among others.
None of them provided privacy-friendly anti-phishing. All did a pretty good job at antimalware, but only some covered adware. Most caused stability and performance impacts that weren’t acceptable. Some were good at being current, others were really bad. The best were overpriced for the risk, and a number of free ones had things that made me wonder about privacy. There were a couple I didn’t even look at let alone install (not listed above), as they are nearly malicious in their own right and require nuking the machine from orbit to remove.
In the end, I picked an updated version of my old standby – and the one I used to remove the adware: Malwarebytes. They’ve recently added real-time protection/prevention capabilities, which is a big boost. On the mac, I think it’s moderately overpriced versus the risk and functionality, but not grossly so. A privacy friendly URL filter remains a wish-list item. For the threat that I see, which is primarily adware, it’s the most optimal overall solution for personal or small business use.
When in comes to Christmas, there’s some American traditions that come to mind. Sleigh rides in New England, Snow in the Colorado mountains, and the tree at Rockefeller Center in New York among them. We went there recently, and I was able to capture this panoramic image of the scene. Right behind where I was standing, the Saks Fifth Avenue music and building light show was playing. With the cold and snow, sounds and sights, it was a wonderful Christmas tradition.
And all that was made possible by incredible customer service from Mike’s Camera in Lone Tree, Colorado. I’d purchased a new lens (and sold my old one), then discovered that it was out of alignment – yeah, I should have tested it first, but didn’t expect any issues with a Nikkor. Simon went above and beyond, arranged a rapid repair, and kept me up to date on the progress and status…without me having to call and ask. The lens came back in time for my trip, and I couldn’t be happier. Customer service to that level is all too rare these days, and I highly recommend looking him up if you’re in the market for gear in Colorado.