The OS X Operating System might be free of virii and trojans at the moment but I cannot imagine this situation will last. Also being free from malicious code doesn’t prevent otherwise trustworthy companies from ‘phoning home’ as is the case with OS X 10.4.3.
In the windows worlds the obvious answer is to just get the free edition of Zone Alarm but sadly there is nothing free in the Mac world.
I’ve often come across mentions of Little Snitch so I figured I’ll check it out, from its website:
You start an application that tells you that a new version is available. You suddenly realize that with every start this application connects to the developer’s server. Even statistics information about your computer may be sent this way. Little Snitch helps you avoid this situation.
Trojan horses – i.e. programs transmitting unconsciously data stored on your computer – can be detected by Little Snitch and prevented on the transmission of data.
So I tried its free demo for a few days and last night bought it via PayPal thanks to the strong Pound it was a bargain, below is a screenshot of it in action showing it even blocks shell commands etc.
I can really recommend this app, grab a copy if you are concerned about privacy and general security on your Mac.
