Firewall and Antivirus Programs for the mac

[Jester]

I was told by a firend that Mac's don't get virii. I find this hard to believe. I need to know if mac's can be hacked? I.E. can they get virii, browser hijacked, spyware, pop up;s, ect. If they can what is the free software allternatives to AVG, Sygate firewall, And Ad-aware for the mac? Thanks for the help. I just got an i-book and i'm trying to get as knowledgeable with OS X as i am with the Windows XP.

[Mac Medic]

As of right now there are no known viruses for Mac OS X and about 70 for OS 9. No trojans exist (although the MP3 proof of concept garnered some interest but wasn't a trojan). There are no known browser hijack vulnerabilities (even with IE Mac). Yes pop-ups happen but safari blocks them. The OS has had vulnerabilities patched for various vulnerabilities to hackers, but only local hackers so far, no remote vulnerabilities have been found. Symantec make Av for mac, but it's definitions are for windows viruses which it just deletes from your e-mail, so basically a waste of money until an OS X virus rears it's head.