Educause Security Discussion mailing list archives
Re: Malware (antivirus) software for Macintosh
From: "Jason C. Belford" <jason.belford () OIT GATECH EDU>
Date: Thu, 17 May 2012 15:59:13 -0400
We provide McAfee VirusScan for Mac to our campus. A co-worker of mine prefers Sophos. He ran some (unscientific) tests by installing various clients and copying files around. He timed each copy.. He shared his findings with me (see below).
I used a copy of my Library folder since it's 3.08 gigabytes and contains 32,819 files. I figured more files to scan will give me a better idea of performance. I disabled Time Machine and rebooted the Mac between each test copy so the environment was as nearly identical as I could make it for each run. Each test was in a terminal window with the command: time cp -pr Library-test/ Library-test-2 First, I did it twice with nothing installed. Real User Sys 1m38.032s 0m0.998s 0m12.907s 1m40.936s 1m0.008s 0m13.119s Then twice with McAfee installed. Real User Sys 4m14.581s 0m1.196s 0m15.959s 4m12.333s 0m1.198s 0m16.052s Wow! Over 4 minutes! Then I uninstalled McAfee and ran the test again with nothing. I should have gotten similar results to the first two runs. Real User Sys 1m42.203s 0m0.996s 0m13.060s Yep, similar results. Then I installed the free version of Sophos for the Mac and gave it two runs. Real User Sys 2m26.733s 0m0.985s 0m14.081s 2m26.177s 0m0.978s 0m14.062s The extra overhead of scanning 32,819 files added 44 seconds to the copy using Sophos. Using McAfee it added 2.5 minutes (150 seconds)
I am only presenting the facts and this email should not be interrupted me as endorsing any product. --Jason On May 17, 2012, at 3:45 PM, Cappalli, Tim G @ LSC-OIT wrote:
We are using McAfee on the Macs with no noticeable performance issues. We just moved our Windows machines to FEP. Tim Cappalli, ACMP CCNA | (802) 626-6456 Office of Information Technology (OIT) | Lyndon » cappalli () lyndonstate edu | oit.lyndonstate.edu <image001.png><image002.png><image003.png> From: The EDUCAUSE Security Constituent Group Listserv [mailto:SECURITY () LISTSERV EDUCAUSE EDU] On Behalf Of Dean Williams Sent: Thursday, May 17, 2012 3:18 PM To: SECURITY () LISTSERV EDUCAUSE EDU Subject: [SECURITY] Malware (antivirus) software for Macintosh A rash of Flashback infections has us thinking about malware protection for our Macintoshes. Is anyone using a product that you’d recommend (or recommend against!)? If you are supporting malware protection for your Macintoshes, is the impact on system performance acceptable? Is it effective in preventing or at least detecting infections? Are updates timely? Is it affordable? Thanks for any experience or insight you can share. Dean Williams, GSLC Information Security Officer Enterprise Technology Services University of Vermont Dean.Williams () uvm edu | 802-656-1174 http://www.uvm.edu/it/
-- Jason C. Belford, CISSP, GCIH, GCFE Principal Information Security Engineer Office of Information Technology Georgia Institute of Technology Phone: (404) 894 - 6159
Current thread:
- Malware (antivirus) software for Macintosh Dean Williams (May 17)
- Re: Malware (antivirus) software for Macintosh Jason Rinne (May 17)
- Re: Malware (antivirus) software for Macintosh King, Ronald A. (May 17)
- Re: Malware (antivirus) software for Macintosh Roger A Safian (May 17)
- Message not available
- Re: Malware (antivirus) software for Macintosh Jesse Safran (May 17)
- Re: Malware (antivirus) software for Macintosh Jeff Giacobbe (May 17)
- Re: Malware (antivirus) software for Macintosh Jesse Safran (May 17)
- Re: Malware (antivirus) software for Macintosh Cappalli, Tim G @ LSC-OIT (May 17)
- Re: Malware (antivirus) software for Macintosh Jason C. Belford (May 17)
- Re: Malware (antivirus) software for Macintosh Louis APONTE (May 17)
- Re: Malware (antivirus) software for Macintosh Everett, Alex D (May 17)
- Re: Malware (antivirus) software for Macintosh John Ladwig (May 17)
- Re: Malware (antivirus) software for Macintosh Justin Azoff (May 17)
- Re: Malware (antivirus) software for Macintosh Louis APONTE (May 18)
- Re: Malware (antivirus) software for Macintosh Everett, Alex D (May 18)
- Re: Malware (antivirus) software for Macintosh Everett, Alex D (May 17)
- Re: Malware (antivirus) software for Macintosh Gallese, Brady T. (May 17)