Kaspersky Releases Anti-Virus for Mac

Apple Macintosh computers have long been thought to be unattractive to malware, virus writers and hackers, but the scenario is fast changing, as it appears. At the moment, Mac computers are quickly becoming more and more popular with hackers and other online scam artists, prompting security software vendors to unveil Mac versions of antivirus applications.

Taking initiative recently Kaspersky Lab rolled out Anti-Virus for Mac, the latest in a string of new Mac-centric security products designed to protect the roughly one in 10 people who aren’t using a Windows PC. This new antivirus for Mac is meant to shield the Mac OS against viruses, worms and Trojan as well as similar problems on other operating systems such as Windows and Linux.

Kaspersky officials said this new antivirus suite prevents users’ Macs from becoming “incubators” for malware and from inadvertently harboring and spreading PC and Unix malware to colleagues and friends.

“Since 2005, there has been a marked increase in the number of vulnerabilities in the Mac OS which can be used to conduct an attack via the Internet,” said Gun Suk Ling, managing director for Kaspersky Lab, Southeast Asia.

In an interesting recent survey by security software vendor Sophos found that 93 percent of Mac users believe malware writers will increasingly target their beloved machines in the future.

“The single most concerning issue for Mac security today is having these machines used as hosts for PC malware,” Justin Priestly, Kaspersky Lab’s senior vice president of consumer sales, said in a statement. “These threats may not damage the Mac they live on, but they can be passed to a friend’s PC by sharing a USB flash drive or spread from a graphic design department to infect PC-colleagues across a network.”

Compatibility: In terms of compatibility, the Kaspersky Anti-Virus can work with versions of Mac OS from 10.4.11. A Macintosh with the Intel processor, 512 MB available RAM and 80 MB available hard drive space are the other technical requirements. Company officials said the security applications automatically scan files, downloads from the Web and e-mail attachments in real time, disinfecting corrupted files as it goes along and protecting users from more than 30,000 new malware threats — including many tailored specifically for Macs, each day.

Pricing: Anti-Virus for Mac is now available for download from the Kaspersky Web site as a 30-day free trial. A year license is available for $39.95 for one machine or $59.95 a year for up to three machines.
Update! Looks like they have revised their pricing now to $59.95 a year for ONE machine.