Yes, that is a potentially arguable point. It's a risk choice - you're weighing up between:
- AV controller finding out about a new virus and blocking it before you get attacked by it - AV software doing something bad
Personally, I think that the risk of AV software doing something bad is low - they have pretty strong incentive to make as sure as possible that they avoid such failures.
I also think that whilst there are no known active Mac viruses out there at the present time, I like that if someone sends me a word doc with a macro virus, I'll know about it, even though I'm not affected by it. And that's not a theoretical example - I've been sent such documents.
You're right though - do what you say and you'll mostly be alright. Especially if you go for known relatively reputable software download locations, rather than doing silly things like downloading from "hackedsoftware.com.invalid". :-)
(no subject)
Date: 2009-09-10 02:24 (UTC)- AV controller finding out about a new virus and blocking it before you get attacked by it
- AV software doing something bad
Personally, I think that the risk of AV software doing something bad is low - they have pretty strong incentive to make as sure as possible that they avoid such failures.
I also think that whilst there are no known active Mac viruses out there at the present time, I like that if someone sends me a word doc with a macro virus, I'll know about it, even though I'm not affected by it. And that's not a theoretical example - I've been sent such documents.
You're right though - do what you say and you'll mostly be alright. Especially if you go for known relatively reputable software download locations, rather than doing silly things like downloading from "hackedsoftware.com.invalid". :-)