- What Defines a Virus?
- Viruses
- Worms
- Trojan Horses
- Macro Viruses
- So What Was OSX/Leap?
- Protecting Your Mac
- Commercial Options
- ClamXavthe Open Source Option
- Protecting a Mac Network
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ClamXavโthe Open Source Option
ClamXav is a free Mac OS X antivirus tool based on the open source ClamAV project. It has a nice graphical interface and is a very functional tool. It contains both the Unix-based ClamAV backend and the ClamXav application. ClamXav offers the ability to set automated scans and virus definition updates, the ability to exclude files based on filenames from scans, the ability to scan specific folders, the ability to designate a sentry folder that is scanned every time an item is placed in it, and the ability to scan disks and storage devices automatically. One limitation, however, is that you can quarantine only infected files to a specified folderโyou cannot attempt to remove a virus from a file and must delete infected files manually from the quarantine folder. There is also the concern that because it is an open source project being handled by one person, updates and support might not be as readily available as a commercial application.