With all of the talk regarding Apple's (albeit limited) antimalware capabilities included in Snow Leopard, I thought it was time to look at the current state of antimalware on the Mac OS X platform. Not that long ago there were only a few choices for real antivirus on the mac. Virex, Norton and Intego have been the long standing providers in this area, but what are the current choices for mac users?

We haven't run the products through their paces for detection capabilities yet, so we are just going to list the options and in no particular order.

• F-Secure has a Technology Preview of their product on the mac. I've installed it on one of my primary machines running Snow Leopard, have not noticed a performance degredation. After the latest update, the interface feels very modern, seems to have no problems with Snow Leopard and feels like a solid product.
  
  F-Secure Mac Techology Preview


• Sophos now has a mac version of Sophos Antivirus. Of note, it works in Intel and Power-PC machines, has HIPS capabilities, and can be centrally managed cross-platform.
  
  Sophos for Mac
  
  Sophos actually also did a video on Snow Leopard's capabilities:
  
  


• Symantec of course offers Norton Antivirus on the mac. They also offer a full suite of security products in Norton Internet Security 4 for Mac. There are a few compatibility issues with Snow Leopard that they hope to have worked out shortly.
  
  Norton Antivirus for Mac
  Snow Leopard Compatibility Notes


• McAfee's Virex is now McAfee VirusScan for Mac. A long-time provider for the mac, Virex used to be given away to .Mac (now known as MobileMe) users. The McAfee client can be configured in ePolicy Orchestrator along with the rest of your mcafee products on any platforms.
  
  McAfee VirusScan for Mac


• Intego is a Mac-Only provider that offers a very highly rated product that looks and feels like a powerful, integrated mac application. On top of antivirus, Intego sells a number of security products on the mac platform including firewall, parental control, and antispam products
  
  Intego VirusBarrierX


• Another Mac-Only solution is SecureMac's MacScan. on top of antivirus functionality, it also blocks tracking cookies and offers "Internet Clutter Cleanup"
  
  MacScan


• Avast! now offers a mac version of their scanner with integrated mail protection. The package comes with their PC product as well, so if you dual-boot or have virtual machines running, both platforms can be protected.
  
  Avast! Mac Edition


• ClamXav is a free option which is a frontend for ClamAV. It is an on-demand scanner only.
  
  ClamXav


• PC Tools offers iAntiVirus for the Mac, with free and paid versions. The free version is the same product but no technical support.
  
  iAntiVirus


• Computer Associates's enterprise solution, eTrust is available on the mac platform as well.
  
  Computer Associates eTrust


• BitDefender has a Beta of it's "BitDefender for Mac 2009". Not a lot of information on it.
  
  Bitdefender Betas


• Trend Micro doesn't appear to offer a full-on antivirus product on the mac yet, but does offer a product that protects your browser from navigating to and downloading the malware to begin with. It is called "Smart Surfing for Mac"
  
  Smart Surfing for Mac