Has the focus of malware writers shifted from Microsoft Windows platform to Mac OSX operating system? answer may be no/yes but with the current buzz about “Mac Defender” malware Avast don’t want to sit idle, popular free antivirus Avast released public beta version of “Avast Free Antivirus for Mac” with new brand GUI and protection features keeping Mac users in mind.
Avast Free Antivirus for Mac
Avast Free Antivirus for Mac offers three shields – File Shield to scan for programs stored and executed from your hard drive, Web Shield and Mail Shield to check incoming data from the internet.
This Avast Free antivirus for Mac still unfinished with bugs and in Beta stage may not recommended to run on a working system.
Features
- On-demand scanning: It’s possible to scan the whole file system, network volumes or a mounted removable volume. You can also run a custom scan. Scan reports are automatically archived and are accessible from the GUI at anytime.
- On-screen alerts: Alert messages are displayed on-screen whenever a threat is detected.
File Shield: The File Shield scans the binaries of started applications and all files at the time they are modified. - Web Shield: The Web Shield monitors and filters all HTTP traffic coming from web sites on the Internet. Connections from your web browser are redirected to the Web Shield module. The Web Shield in turn connects to the requested web server and while downloading the content, it simultaneously scans it for viruses and Trojans. Only clean data is delivered to the browser, all malware is stopped before it gets saved on your Mac.
- Mail Shield: The Mail Shield monitors and filters all POP3 and IMAP traffic coming from mail servers on the internet. It does not prevent saving of infected files (doing so could lead to irreversible data loss), it just detects them. The File Shield prevents any infected attachments from causing harm to your system.
- Automatic updates: The scanning engine is automatically updated with our regular VPS database updates.
Installing & Uninstalling Avast Free Antivirus for Mac
- To use the Mail Shield, you need to disable encrypted POP3/IMAP connections in your email client’s settings so the traffic can be scanned. By default, the Mail Shield encrypts all outgoing traffic itself if the mail server supports it (encrypted connections can be forced for selected mail accounts in the Mail Shield settings).
- Uninstallation must be carried out from the application’s menu bar – item "Uninstall avast!"
Download Link
http://public.avast.com/dev/mac-beta1/avast.dmg
Via [Avast forum]