In an old game, Shadowrun, IC were virtual reality Intrusion Countermeasures players used to fend off hacks and attacks. No one said at the time, Ha! I’m a Mac, you can’t touch me. But that’s what tons of users are doing in real life today and there’s bad news dumping by the metric ton out the pipes about MacHacks.

I believe that back in the day, price points kept script kiddies from buying Mac computers just to take them apart and see how they and their code worked. Windows machines were always more affordable for the enthusiast to dissect. There was also no backward compatibility from new Mac OS’s. Several days ago, I was chatting with some of my Mac user friends noting that fewer than 10% of Mac users even bother with an Antivirus, or IC of any sort (better poll results below).

John Gruber, of Daring Fireball, kept track! Where would my insistence to my Mac friends be if not for Gruber’s article entitled Wolf! which quotes volumes of warnings and data that Mac users should seriously heed?

Face it, you Mac users probably know nothing of antivirus software. That’s a good thing, but take a modest step down from whatever pedestal you’re on for a minute. Remember there are no free lunches and some nefarious antivirus solutions are actually just spies gathering data to sell for advert groups. Have a look at spending a few bucks on IC for Mac computers. Friend to friend, don’t get caught unawares.

Antivirus for Macs

• avast! Mac edition be free
  • I don’t like it, but apple.com actually recommends it.
• Sophos is a trusted name.
• Norton is an ancient standby.
  • Made by Symantec, Norton just pulled ahead IMHO over Kaspersky for PC IC
  • Mac nuts, PLEASE do not use Norton 360, you don’t need it; just the antivirus.
• A FEB2010 article from GigaOM polling that 8 of 10 Mac users DO NOT use IC
  • 5,298 visitors responded to the poll.

CAUTION you Mac nuts. Windows users always encounter fake security apps but your first time came two days ago: Mac Users hit by First Rogue Antivirus App a PCWorld article – scan your Google results more carefully than we, PC’s do.