Intego VirusBarrier X6
Friday, 26 March 2010
Luckily for us Mac users, Apple finds avenues you could use to hack Macs with. If you did have Apple malware. Then Apple closes that avenue. For Apple doesn’t issue Security Updates to fight actual malware, but to close avenues that, if a hacker found those same avenues, and had malware ready to go, could be exploited.
For those who like to play safe with their Macs, Intego is a big company with offices in the US, Japan and France. The firm makes software for Macs and PCs, including for Macs which run OS X and Windows.
Intego installs a NetUpdate is a program to check for updates to the programs and their support files (virus threat filters, content filters, etc.). NetUpdate checks for updates of all Intego programs at the same time, and downloads and installs updates for any installed on your computer.
NetUpdate can carry out automatic checks at the frequency you choose, and you can launch manual checks.
With VirusBarrier installed, you get a menu at top right of your monitor (under a little castle icon) that gives you instant access to an impressive array of its toolset: Scan Settings (real time and archive scanning), Firewall (pictured left with its animation – this lets you decide Firewall settings and turn on defence against Trojans) and Surf, under which you get anti-phishing, ad banner and cookie filters, information hiding and a web threats on/off toggle. Then you get Privacy settings for anti-spyware and data vault, a Configurations shortcut, and at the bottom the ability to Open Logs, the VirusBarrier traffic monitor and the actual VB application. A lot of the tools in VB X6 are great for system administrators, or for us geeks who love readouts showing data traffic etc. The interface is pretty cool, actually.
Once you boot it you get an interface with nine tabs along the top. At bottom-right of Intego VB X6 there are six little buttons, which display networks, services, traffic, whois, traceroute and show logs.
Options
The nine options are Quarantine, which lets you see what threats have been put aside into a folder for your inspection. Next is Trusted Files (files/folders/apps you add with a plus button – they won’t be scanned).
Schedules lets you set when and what to do with scans, and Scan Settings lets you turn the aforementioned Quarantine feature on, which I did because I wanted to see what it found. (Which was nothing, in three weeks.)
Then there’s Overview, which has the cool function of letting you scan your Mac, any mounted hard drives or USB drives or even a plugged in iPhone. Press Full Scan for a scan of everything available, or press the little Select option above that to choose a device, including the aforementioned plugged-in iPhone.
Then there’s Firewall (all Macs have firewalls built in and have done since OS X first appeared, but this is a little easier to configure).
Once the scan is finished, a stern female robot voice tells you ‘No virus detected!’
There’s also Antivandal, which allows you to block direct intrusion attempts that someone on your network (wired or wi-fi) might attempt – buffer overflow attacks, intrusion attempts, ping attacks, ping broadcast attacks, port scans and SYN flooding.
Under Surf you can turn on or off the fraudulent website protection. Turn this on – Mac users are as likely as any other web users to be lured into fraudulent sites. You can add trusted sites in, block ads, turn on a Cookie Filter and turn on Information Hiding, which tries to stop your Mac being identified out there on the ’net. Note that with the Cookie Filter turned on, when you go back to some sites that handily remember some of your details, well, they won’t any more. For example, I could not log in to administer this site with it on.
And you can turn on Web Threats protection – this is quite cool, as you then start to see all the sites which are so dodgy for PC users.
Finally, there’s Privacy, which would hopefully stop any spyware from being installed on your Mac. If there was any that could be, and if Intego’s team has become aware of it and installed the prevention, which one has to assume they would, via NetBarrier.
WidgetsAfter installing VB X6, don't forget yo open Dashboard as VB X6 puts three widgets at your disposal. Drag them up out of the Dashboard bar above the Dock to install them, then at a press of F12 (or whatever you have set) you get a readout of your settings, NetUpdate statues and two net activity meters.
Conclusion
It’s certainly powerful, but I found myself almost wishing there was a virus out there it could find and deal to, just to prove it could.
I guess, with no real threat, I could just get it to go and invade Iraq or something.
What’s great: awesome readouts on all sorts of network activities
What’s not: sounds weird, but no actual threats to test it on.
Needs: someone with more than just a security need – someone who likes to get great stats on system and network activity
Intego Virus Barrier X6 (and Internet Security Barrier X6) approx. $89.95.
System: Mac OS X 10.5 and higher, 40MB free hard drive space
Distributed by MacGear and is available from Apple retail stores including MagnumMac, Ubertec, SouthTec, Technology Centre and StudentIT. You can get a free trial from this link.
