Misc

Review: Kaspersky Anti-Virus for Mac

Kaspersky Anti-Virus for Mac could be seen as a bit of a contentious product. There are still those who firmly believe the phrase 'Mac malware' to be a contradiction in terms, a figment of the fervid imaginations of antivirus software manufacturers. Yet the past year has seen further variations on the Mac Trojan OSX.RSPlug, as well as multiple versions of OSX.Trojan.iServices – not to mention MacSweeper, the first rogue application for Mac OS X. It's against this background that Kaspersky – already makers of antivirus software for Windows – decided to venture into the Mac platform. Complicated interfaceOnce installed on your Intel Mac (PowerPC Macs aren't supported), Kaspersky Anti-Virus for Mac (KAV) needs to have its virus definitions updated: unfortunately, its "user friendly and attractive" (according to Kaspersky) interface doesn't give you much clue as to how you do that. So we consulted the manual – and found the relevant information on page 13. Duly armed, we decided we'd rather it didn't scan our Time Machine backup – but gave up after wading through a morass of criteria in KAV's extensive Preferences. Should it take five pop-ups and two text fields to choose a file, folder or volume to exclude from a virus scan? Why not a drag-and-drop window? On the positive side, KAV protects against Windows viruses, which means you can use it on a shared folder in a virtual environment. At present, there's no dual platform pack, as there is for Intego and Norton AV, but Kaspersky tells us it's currently in production.Related LinksTechRadar Reviews GuaranteeRead more software reviews

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