How good is Snow Leopard's built-in anti-virus protection?

Apple shocked the world by building protection against two families of Mac Trojan horse into the latest version of its operating system. However, the company is at pains to underline that the technology is not equivalent to running an anti-virus product (for instance, you can't scan your hard drive or clean-up an infection, and it won't intercept malware downloaded via BitTorrent or introduced via a USB drive). See for yourself how Apple's anti-malware protection performs in a short video from SophosLabs.

http://www.sophos.com/blogs/gc/g/2009/08/28/snow-leopard-malware
http://www.sophos.com/blogs/sophoslabs/post/6269
http://www.sophos.com/blogs/chetw/g/2009/08/29/snow-leopards-bundled

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Sophos Anti-Virus supports Snow Leopard

Sophos product manager Sunil Choudrie comments on Apple's new operating system, our support for Mac OS X 10.6 Snow Leopard and what this mean for users. If you're upgrading to the latest version of Mac OS X, you'll want to read this.

http://www.sophos.com/blogs/gc/g/2009/08/28/guest-blog-sophos-antivirus

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Podcast: Windows 7 in the security spotlight

Find out more about some of the improvements that you'll find if you make Microsoft's dreams come true and upgrade to Windows 7, including the new Action Center, enhancements to the Windows Firewall and the latest about DirectAccess and the controversial XP Mode. Senior technologist James Lyne is interviewed in this podcast which takes a closer look at Windows 7 from the security point of view.

http://www.sophos.com/blogs/gc/g/2009/08/25/podcast-windows-7

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Quick poll: Is your smartphone encrypted?

Are you lucky owner of an iPhone, BlackBerry, HTC Hero or Palm Pre? What steps has your company taken to ensure that the data held on the phone is encrypted? Is the data encrypted at all? Let us know in this quick, anonymous poll.

http://www.sophos.com/blogs/gc/g/2009/08/20/smartphone-encrypted

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Twitter spammers post sexy profile pictures

Spammers have created bogus accounts on Twitter, and embedded racy messages into their profile images. Find out more about the attack, and how it attempts to lure unsuspecting social networkers into a date with an adult website.

http://www.sophos.com/blogs/gc/g/2009/08/20/twitter-spammers

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Delphi W32/Induc virus - what you need to know

A curious piece of malware called W32/Induc is designed to infect applications written using Delphi (a variant of the Pascal language originally developed by Borland, and now used to quickly develop Windows programs such as database applications). The virus inserts itself into the source code of any Delphi program it finds on an infected computer, and then compiles itself into a finished executable. Find out more about why we're seeing lots of reports of this virus, and how it has been discovered on a magazine's free CD ROM. You can even listen to a podcast and learn more straight from the malware experts at Sophos.

http://www.sophos.com/blogs/gc/g/2009/08/19/w32induca-spread-delphi-software-houses
http://www.sophos.com/blogs/gc/g/2009/08/20/magazine-ships-induc
http://www.sophos.com/blogs/gc/g/2009/08/21/podcast-delphi-induc-virus
http://www.sophos.com/blogs/sophoslabs/v/post/6117

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P2P file-sharing banned in Antarctica

Authorities have poured cold water over scientists' desires to run file-sharing software like BitTorrent on their computers in the Antarctic. Find out more about the dangers of uncontrolled P2P usage, and how you can enforce a policy inside your company to prevent users putting security at risk or gobbling up bandwidth.

http://www.sophos.com/blogs/gc/g/2009/08/19/p2p-filesharing-banned-antarctica

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Twilight movie star used as lure by malware-spreading hackers

Malware authors are explotiing interest in revealing pictures of actress Ashley Greene to entrap unwary surfers. Learn more about the attack, and remember to think twice before hunting for nubile snaps of Hollwood starlets online.

http://www.sophos.com/blogs/gc/g/2009/08/14/ashley-greene-dirty-pics

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Video: The danger of trusting Conficker clean-up advice on Twitter

Can all tweets on Twitter be trusted, or are some "helpful" souls actually spreading advice on how to clean up malware without revealing that they are making cash from the click throughs? Watch this exclusive video and find out more now.

http://www.sophos.com/blogs/gc/g/2009/08/13/trust-conficker-cleanup-advice-twitter

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Multiple security updates for Windows and Mac users

Users of Mac and Windows computers are once again being advised to update their systems as Apple and Microsoft have issued multiple security patches in the last week. Make sure you keep yourself informed of the critical patches, and update your computers before hackers have a chance to strike.

http://www.sophos.com/blogs/gc/g/2009/08/12/microsoft-issues-barrage-security-updates
http://www.sophos.com/blogs/gc/g/2009/08/12/security-holes-fixed-safari-403
http://www.sophos.com/blogs/gc/g/2009/08/13/day-security-update-apple

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Free download: New version of Sophos Anti-Rootkit

We've updated our free rootkit detection and removal tool to support 64-bit versions of Windows and the upcoming Windows 7. Make sure you have updated to version 1.5 of Sophos Anti-Rootkit to ensure the highest level of protection.

http://www.sophos.com/blogs/gc/g/2009/08/10/sophos-antirootkit-updated
http://www.sophos.com/products/free-tools/sophos-anti-rootkit.html

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Twitter topples under denial-of-service attack

Micro-blogging website Twitter was blasted off the internet last week, after suffering a massive denial-of-service attack. Find out more about the attack, including how an attempt to silence one Georgian blogger actually affected millions of users worldwide.

http://www.sophos.com/blogs/gc/g/2009/08/07/twitter-denialofservice
http://www.sophos.com/blogs/gc/g/2009/08/06/twitter-hit-massive

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Boobytrapped images pose threat to Apple users

Users of Mac computers are being advised to install an important security patch, after Apple acknowledged that a serious flaw existed in its Mac OS X operating system that could be exploited by hackers. Discover more about the flaw and ensure that your Mac computers are properly defended.

http://www.sophos.com/blogs/gc/g/2009/08/06/boobytrapped-images

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US Marines banned from using Twitter and Facebook

The US Marine Corps has banned troops from accessing social networking websites - such as Twitter, Facebook and MySpace - from its networks. Discover how military commanders are becoming increasingly concerned about the threat of hackers spreading malware via the systems.

http://www.sophos.com/blogs/gc/g/2009/08/05/marines-banned-twitter

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Exploiting trust with SSL vulnerabilities

A serious flaw has been found in the way that SSL, browsers and Certificate Authorities work with each other to provide transport security and identity validation on the web. Learn more about the problem, and how Sophos's web appliance can automatically detect malformed certificates and block them before they get to the user or the web browser.

http://www.sophos.com/blogs/gc/g/2009/08/03/guest-blog-internet-identity

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Sophos wins VB100 award for virus protection

Industry magazine Virus Bulletin describes Sophos's anti-virus solution as "a worthy winner" of the VB100 award in a comparative test, with "detection rates very impressive across all the sets." This is the 48th time Sophos has won the VB100 award from the independent testers at Virus Bulletin for its protection capabilities. Read more about the test now.

http://www.sophos.com/blogs/gc/g/2009/08/03/sophos-wins-vb100-award

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iPhone update fixes "SMS of death" vulnerability

Apple has released an update to its iPhone operating system to protect against a vulnerability that could potentially allow criminals to hijack users' phones by sending booby-trapped SMS messages. Although the exploit has not yet been used in anger, make sure you update your iPhone now.

http://www.sophos.com/blogs/gc/g/2009/08/01/iphone-update-fixes-sms

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