anti-spyware for mac?

yes ther eis and no it's not. Don't worry about it at all. Check back in on the subject in 6-12 months.. but it probably never will be an issue.

Is the new Mac OS Tiger more secure than Panther?

I apologize, I don't know much about Macs. The only experience I've had with them is at school. I was thinking about buying the 12" powerbook, but the OS is what scares me the most. It seems as if there are no antivirus or antispyware software. Someone please enlighten me, I've been an avid wintel user since forever and I have a plethora of security suites, but my friends with Macs never seem to have a concern about the latest virus, trojan, or what have you. Any information would be great.

I remember reading that imac can't get spyware.

For the most part Mac users don’t have to worry about viruses, worms, or whatever. Firstly, the vast majority of people use MS operating systems (over 90%), so most of the people writing the crap and releasing it on the internet write the programs to take advantage of MS products. Let’s put it this way, if 9 out of 10 people drive Chevy’s, a car thief would have a better chance of stealing a car carrying around a box of Chevy keys than if he had a box of Ford keys. So for starters there isn’t a lot of malware that will even run on UNIX based systems. Second, UNIX based systems (Mac OS X or Linux, for example) are inherently more secure than MS based products, if used properly. These OS’s are meant to be easily run from a user account, not a system admin account. Windows on the other hand has limited functionality from user accounts, which causes most people to just use admin accounts as the norm (until Windows NT there was no option not to do this), which means when you click on something it is run with full access to the machine, which would allow malware to install itself and run. On a UNIX machine you can give user accounts different privileges for different programs or if necessary you can temporarily enable admin privileges within a user account, which gives user accounts almost full functionality. But if malware tried to run in a user account it would need to ask permission from a system admin first. Also most UNIX based machines use a different browser than Internet Explorer, and therefore won’t run activeX controls at all and most don’t run Java natively, which eliminates a lot of the exploits currently used.
But as more people use alternatives to MS products we will see people figure out new ways of compromising these as well (and some already have), and as the need arises the security firms will offer products for those apps also.

yes but not regarding spyware.. the security fixes that were sorely needed were for filevault... and that has been remedied in tiger.

both are VERY secure for just putting on the net and what not.. filevault just needed some fixing regarding physical access problems.. namably encrypted swap file.

if you are not a "computer kinda person" macs are great ..

i AM a computer kind of person but i don't want to deal with crap when i get home.. i love hte powerbooks... i just wish they'd update them already.

Intego makes a product called Net Barrier, that is supposed to have some anti-spyware features (among other things), and Allume has something they call Internet Cleanup which also has some features. However, the coolest program in this genre for the Mac is Little Snitch at; http://www.obdev.at/products/littlesnitch/index.html

You may find the need for this kind of software in the OSX world to be pretty much non-existent, (except for Little Snitch). I've never come across any spyware on my Mac. A great site for discussion on these types of issues is http://www.securemac.com/ or search for discussions on this at http://apple.slashdot.org/

Net Barrier is a firewall. I use it because it gives you the option of blocking net access to programmes whenever they try and request it and it keeps me safe from any outside forces—which is why I don't use Little Snitch, because it's not a firewall. I hate that programmes can call home without my knowing.

mac os x has quiet a good build in firewall and viruses spyware and such are a non-issue seeing as non exists.

the fact that mac os x has a limited user base is not the only reason why there is no viruses and such, it is based on unix making mac os x far more secure as a operating system compared to windows.

The main reason for spyware are executable files and activex files in Internet explorer. They use the fact that both can install software without your permission. With the Mac, it won't let a program install without an administrator password.

I think Mac malware will increase as the platform gains popularity. For now, the UNIX underpinnings of OS X make it harder to mess with than a Windows machine.

The reason Windows has so many problems is... 95% market share, and they kinda ran to make all this cool stuff using Active X and IE and IE is so integrated into the system and well, turns out, all that stuff was incredibly easy to hack.

That doesn't mean very much. Win2k/XP borrow heavily from VMS, and look where that got them. :P