15 years ago, Many Mac users had a free virus program called Disinfectant installed inside their system folders. It was one of the first programs that I downloaded with a dial-up modem back in November, 1992. Disinfectant was developed by a Northwestern University professor. These day, ‘free anti-virus software’ sends a totally different message. Free is a word that cyber criminals widely use to lure naive Internet users, right? If you are a Windows OS user, would you like to try executing a file titled AntiMalwareGuard_Free.exe that is distributed at http://antimalwareguard.com? (See Screenshot 01.) The website says the file is free. (See Screenshot 02.) Even the file name implies it’s free. And if I use Sophos Anti-Virus to scan this file… Ahh… The file contains malicious codes driven by a Trojan Horse derivative. (See Screenshot 03.) Not surprisingly, you will get something undesirable in the name of getting freeware or saving money.

Screenshot 01

Screenshot 02

Screenshot 03

How about ClamXav? According to its website (http:// www.clamxav.com),

ClamXav is a free virus checker for Mac OS X. It uses the tried, tested and very popular ClamAV open source antivirus engine as a back end.

We don’t believe this freeware title contains malicious codes like AntiMalwareGuard. In fact, we just want to find out how good ClamXav is. So let’s see what ClamAV does for Mac users.  Continue reading →