AVAST Launches Beta Version of Free Mac Antivirus Product

AVAST Software, the company behind one of the most popular Windows antivirus solutions, has just launched a beta version of its upcoming free antivirus product for Mac OS X.

avast! Free Antivirus for Windows has over 160 million registered users and almost 130 active ones; that's unique installations that have queried the update servers during the past month.

Furthermore, the product is probably the most feature-rich free antivirus for Windows and regularly tops many commercial solutions in independent tests.

All this is good news for Mac users, because the company has tried its best to provide the level of malware protection for Apple's platform.

The upcoming avast! Free Antivirus for Mac is almost a complete rewrite of the company's older Mac paid-for solution.

It features scanning for files, web pages and emails, so it covers all major malware propagation routes.

Like any traditional antivirus, it has an on-demand scan option which allows users to scan particular areas of their computers.

Then, there's a File Shield component that provides on-access protection. This feature scans all binary files when they are saved, modified or executed on the system.

The Web Shield sets AVAST's solution apart from other free anti-malware products currently available for Mac OS. This component functions as a network filter that scans all HTTP traffic for signs of malicious code and blocks it before reaching the browser.

The Mail Shield is another feature currently missing in other Mac antivirus solutions. It monitors POP3 and IMAP traffic and detects emails with malicious content.

The Mail Shield won't remove any content by itself and won't prevent users from saving infected attachments on the computer. Instead, it will warn them about the threat and let them decide what they want to do with the email.

However, even if a malicious attachment does get saved on the computer, the File Shield will kick in and prevent it from infecting the system.

The beta version works on Mac OS X 10.5 or higher and requires the Growl framework for alert pop-ups. It can be downloaded from here, but please keep in mind that there are still bugs to resolve.