The last couple of weeks has been interesting. Warnings of more security threats on Macs and then a new flaw found on IE that could comprise your files. Granted that’s all on the PC side, but the hypochondriac in me got a little shakey when it comes to security on my Mac.

Sure, many viruses don’t even bother with Mac OS-X. The reasons we’re safe, either because of it’s perceived obscurity (are 30million users obscure?) or it’s secure UNIX base, are up for debate. Mac users though, don’t invest the time and effort that some PC users go to in order to protect themselves. But logic says that a programmer will eventually take advantage of 30million unprotected users sooner or later.

So, when Intego offered us a look at VirusBarrier X6 for Mac, we gladly jumped at the chance. We’re feeling pretty happy that we did too.

There are other Mac virus protection packages out there, perhaps the most well known being Symantec’s Norton AnitVirus for Mac, but Intego’s offering gives the venerable Norton a run for it’s money.

The initial setup and install is a breeze. From there, the start-up scan does its thing. You really go hands-off from here and just sit back and watch.

You’ll notice, like most anti-virus apps, all the bio-hazard/medical feel to the interface. But Intego takes it a step further and it skips the line between cheeky-ha-ha-funny and deadly serious. I like pluckiness in an app. They’re not trying to scare you like some of the other apps out there, but instead they want to to understand what’s going on and exercise caution.

I can’t stand anti-virus apps that try to scare you into submission and Intego’s doesn’t do that. So that’s a point for it right there.

Like most apps that users find useful, you’ll be finding new things that VirusBarrier is doing for you without you even knowing it. Still for an experienced surfer, there will be things that you want turned off. So, turning off annoying things like anti-phishing site messages on most apps can be difficult. On Windows, you’re going to go through a few steps and answer “Are you sure?” more than a few times before it’s actually done.

Here, Intego’s made is easy, just flip a switch. Done. No fancy questions to answer. Just done. It’s simple, but a warning to less advanced users, you’ll want to be careful. To quote Peter Parker’s Uncle Ben, “Along with great power, comes great responsibility.”

Along with anit-virus, Intego has also built in a few other features to keep your protected. A few of these are just easier ways of accessing what your Mac can already do. That doesn’t make it bad thing as most of us on Macs aren’t really going to go under the hood. Intego makes turning these on and off really easy and simple to understand. Outside of those, there are more than a few features to help protect against malware, ping attacks, port sniffers, spyware, phishing, and a whole bunch of other stuff that most folks haven’t even thought about yet.

Check out the “cockpit” style network activity monitor:

You’ll find “quick” link buttons throughout to check WiFi, available ports and their running services, as well as other things like whois and traceroute look-ups.

Intego’s interface here, and overall, is superb. It’s simple and easy to understand while presenting a lot of complicated information for you to process. That’s not easy to do and they do it really well.

You’ll find equally useful widgets if you find yourself feeling more geeky than normal. There’s even a built in on-desktop type monitor that shows network activity. If all of sudden something spikes up and you haven’t done anything, then a scan might be in order.

If nothing else, I had fun uploading and download and watching the meter go as I clicked links, sent e-mails, and tried to max out the readings.

Overall, you can’t go wrong with Intego’s offering. It’s priced lower and in our opinion more full featured than ones from Norton and others on the Mac. VirusBarrier X6, along with a separate package of even more security specific features called Internet Security Barrier X6, is available at Intego’s website: www.intego.com. Pricing for VirusBarrier X6 is $49.95 but allows you protect two Macs. That’s huge considering most anti-virus apps are $49.95 for just a single seat license.

There’s a free trial for the software as well, but we’re pretty sure you’ll agree with us that Intego’s offering is impressive, easy to use, and powerful enough to keep your Mac protected as folks begin to target us 30million Mac users.

(Full disclosure notice: I’ve purchased Norton AntiVirus before for PC and Mac as well as getting free NFR copies to try in the past. For this review, we were provided a review copy from Intego for the purposes of reviewing and evaluating their software. We were not paid for this endorsement nor do we make any warranties about Intego’s product. This is merely our own personal opinion based endorsement of VirusBarrier X6 for Mac.)

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