antivirus for mac

[Madhatter32]

It's a game of probablities ... such is life. The probability of encountering a virus on a Mac is very small. Do Macs enjoy absolute immunity? No, not sure that is possible in theory or reality. But, for all practical purposes, your risk is very small. If you want to purchase insurance in the form of an AV, knock yourself out -- as long as the "premium" is super cheap for such insurance.

 

[IowaLynn]

Phishing is still popular and effective.

 

[Apple_Robert]

Phishing is still popular and effective.

I have never tried to clean a fish.

 

[HDFan]

UNIX was developed with an emphasis on security,

Source? Not one article I have read over the years even mentions security as a major initial development priority (wikipedia quotes here):

"a convenient platform for programmers developing software "

"Even though the UNIX system introduces a number of innovative programs and techniques, no single program or idea makes it work well. Instead, what makes it effective is the approach to programming, a philosophy of using the computer. Although that philosophy can't be written down in a single sentence, at its heart is the idea that the power of a system comes more from the relationships among programs than from the programs themselves. Many UNIX programs do quite trivial things in isolation, but, combined with other programs, become general and useful tools."

it is more secure by design.

It is more secure, but security was not the primary driving force in its development.

 

[Gregg2]

The sky is blue is BS... see anyone can find a retort and not have to back it up,

Just because you don't consider it a reason as to why viruses are prominent on one platform over another doesn't make any less valid. That's your perception. And for the matter, I never touted the only reason why viruses are more prevalent on Windows was market saturation. That was your hook. I stated that ALL OSes are vulnerable to attacks. One just is more likely to get attacked due to... in your disbelief, market share.

Whether you choose to believe it or not is moot. The fact remains that all OSes are vulnerable to attacks and all it takes is someone willing to take the time to find it's vulnerabilities to prove it. And for the record, they prove it every day... because there is no need to have security updates for a supposedly secure machine now is there.

Put your head in the sand if you wish, but don't fool yourself into thinking that some UNIX box is impervious to exploits. Because it's not.

You are totally mischaracterizing my posts. Fact: there has not been one virus in the wild for the macOS. These threads usually produce a request for anyone who contests that to identify a Mac virus by name and date. They never do, because one does not exist. Macs do get other types of malware, less harmful, but annoying.

Invalid point about security updates there bud. Evolution dictates the need for security updates to maintain a high level of protection.

 

[AppleSmack]

As this is a frequent topic, there seem to be 3 different approaches:

1. Do nothing - the Mac is intrinsically safe

2. Install free Malwarebytes

3. Install an antivirus package

(1) and (2) are the most popular on MacRumors. The distribution among the general Mac population don't know.

I subscribe to (3), via Sophos.

Does your Mac need antivirus software? We ask the experts | Digital Trends

MacOS isn't immune to harmful malware and other destructive code. But do you really need antivirus software for your Mac or MacBook? Let’s find out.

www.digitaltrends.com

There's a lot going on in this whole thread. I think the answer quoted is the best.

If you have any compelling or not reason (business requirement, caution, habit, just because), use an AV.

Otherwise, do nothing and/or Malwarebytes is the way to go.

People have done any of the 3 options and been just fine.

Poor OP, they just wanted a straight answer!

 

[Gregg2]

Source? Not one article I have read over the years even mentions security as a major initial development priority



It is more secure, but security was not the primary driving force in its development.

I did recently read somewhere that UNIX was developed with a focus on security. I didn't make note of the source, sorry. You can find the "UNIX Philosophy" (such as the link below) and it does not mention security. So what I read must have been someone's conclusion, perhaps based on performance.

Developers of some of the systems that are based on UNIX do in fact state that security management is a focus. As this web page claims: http://www.linuxandubuntu.com/home/top-10-unix-based-operating-systems Beyond that, I offer no "proof".

 

[Feek]

MacOS already contains built-in malware

I'm sure this isn't quite what you meant

 

[ondioline]

Source? Not one article I have read over the years even mentions security as a major initial development priority

What you're saying is technically true. When UNIX was originally developed at Bell Labs, they couldn't have even begun to comprehend the kind of constant remote adversarial attacks and protection needed 40 years later. It's revisionism to say there was an emphasis on security like they're implying.

However by design it was always intended to be a multi-user timesharing system. The primitives (permissions, users, groups, privilege escalation) were always there to protect the system and users from intrusion or malicious actors. The same can't be said for DOS, pre-NT Windows, or pre-OSX Mac OS.

 

[HDFan]

Developers of some of the systems that are based on UNIX do in fact state that security management is a focus.

Security needs developed and increased as time passed. It would be interesting to see a graph of its importance. Feels like it is exponential growth path right now.

However by design it was always intended to be a multi-user timesharing system.

?

From Wikipedia:

At first, Unix was not designed to be portable[6] or for multi-tasking.[10]

 

[IowaLynn]

Microsoft hoped to ship NT without bugs, turned out there were more like 64k if 'em.
XP by design was to make it easy for large global corporation to push updates out to their thousands and tens of thousands of clients with instructions sent via commands in an email basically (not being technically accurate).

Anything had to be better. Yes?

 

[ondioline]

?

I'm going to guess you don't know what "timesharing" means huh? It has nothing to do with portability! Good job trying to be tediously pedantic though.

 

[pmiles]

You are totally mischaracterizing my posts. Fact: there has not been one virus in the wild for the macOS. These threads usually produce a request for anyone who contests that to identify a Mac virus by name and date. They never do, because one does not exist. Macs do get other types of malware, less harmful, but annoying.

Invalid point about security updates there bud. Evolution dictates the need for security updates to maintain a high level of protection.

You're the one that said OSX was so secure... there would be no need to "secure" something that was already secure. The fact that there are continous security updates proves the OS is under constant attack.

Hell the front page has an article on a guy who gets paid to do just that, infiltrate systems for vulnerabilities.

This same guy could choose not to "inform" everyone of the weaknesses and actually exploit and do harm... you know, create an actual virus to do just that.

Again, no need to worry, because this guy doesn't really exist and there have never been any "know" Mac viruses out in the wild... because... well just because. That's basically your argument.

 

[iluvmacs99]

i’m a first time mac user and i’m wondering wether or not i should install any antivirus programs. my friend who uses a macbook too doesn’t use one and i’ve generally heard that it’s not necessary provided you don’t go into sketchy websites or something. what do you suggest?

What you had just said is good prudent advice. As long as your mac is running the latest OSX with the most up-to-date security patches and your browsers with the most up-to-date versions with trusted ad-blockers and you don't go into sketchy websites to watch free porn, watch free movies, play free games etc which will then embed their own malware into your system or else run pirated software, then the likelihood of probability of being infected by a virus is low.

These days, you can get infected more often by malware, by visiting sketchy sites, rather than being infected by a virus and it gets harder to really infect machines nowadays with all the security layers from all the computer makers as well as CPUs that have built-in security to prevent external execution of codes, which then only leads with infections being instigated by human error.

Nothing is really 100% full proof. I used to work with clients who basically invite themselves to malware and virus attacks and a death wish to be harmed, because they work in exposing corrupt governments, exposing criminal activities and so forth and their machines get compromised most often even after they had security IT firms beefed up their securities with strong security programs and strong VPN services. They still get hacked. What I'm trying to say is that, if you try to mess with the NSA, then you're just asking yourself to be hacked! But if your actions are low profile and not worth the target of the hackers, then you will stay low profile. Hope this helps form your own decision.

 

[Brian1230]

I have used Mac's off and on for years, my first one was a G4 iBook, and that was after Apple went to intel processors because windows vista made me so irritated and gave me fits, I had a 2011 MacBook Pro 15 inch with the dreaded graphics issue and ended up using windows laptops until the beginning of January this year when I found my current MacBook Air which is an early 2015 11 inch model, i5, 4 gb of ram and the 128gb ssd.... my MacBook Air runs circles around my 2019 Dell laptop i7, 16gb of ram running windows 10 pro. Enough for the plug for Apple, we all know Apple is far superior than windows, that being said, I have never ran any form of antivirus on my Mac's, and being forced to work from home currently because of covid, won't say my thoughts on that, not relative to the discussion, my company thinks I am using my windows computer because they demand anti virus software which I will never install on any of my Apple products, MY COMPUTER, MY CHOICE, but I use my MacBook Air for work all day without any anti virus, because it is enjoyable to use and I am not going to add something to reduce the awesome performance of it when IT IS NOT NEEDED AT ALL. I do use ad block pro in safari, but safari is the only browser I use on any of my Apple devices. Worst that happens is my company finds out and I get terminated, that's fine it is only employment. I have never had any issues with any malware on any of my Apple devices, and enjoy constant performance and stability of the system, without question.

 

[Gregg2]

You're the one that said OSX was so secure... there would be no need to "secure" something that was already secure. The fact that there are continous security updates proves the OS is under constant attack.

That's just horrible "logic". Security updates to the macOS prove that Apple is seriously monitoring new attack vectors and striving to protect the System against them.

The fact that there have been no macOS viruses in the wild is pretty good evidence that the OS is secure. It is not proof of invulnerability, thus the periodic updates to combat new threats. If you analyzed Apple's security updates, I expect that you would find most of them address rather minor issues. Many of them are probably "oopses" correcting an error, since software engineers are not perfect.

 

[Brian1230]

Just heard on a tv program that apple is refusing to provide any unlock codes again to the us government in regards to the iPhones found at the capitol riots.... makes me proud to be an Apple owner. finally a company that takes security and privacy seriously.

 

[AppleSmack]

Antimalware for Mac has become a necessity with cybercrime topping the charts at one end and malware disrupting the system working at another. It is a known fact that the internet world is running at a high speed.

Probably i would suggest some top list of antivirus for Mac.

1. Systweak Anti-Malware
2. Bitdefender Antivirus For Mac
3. Intego
4. Norton 360 Standard For Mac
5. Kaspersky

Nice try, Systweak, neverheardofya.

 

[MBAir2010]

 computers do not need anti-malware protection from the internets because safari detects which site are harmful and will warn the viewer before launching the webpage.

Ain't 2020-21 great?

 

[SuperMatt]

I recommend reading this mini-site from Apple and deciding.

Apple Platform Security

Learn how security is implemented in Apple hardware, software, apps, and services.

support.apple.com

I know somebody who bought Lifelock which came with a free subscription to Norton anti-virus software, and unlike older versions of Norton, it doesn’t seem to cause a lot of conflicts, nor does it slow the machine to a crawl. So if it makes you feel safer, it doesn’t seem to have much of a downside to run it.

 

[Mac... nificent]

There are no Mac viruses in the wild

Not true, but there are so few of them that it's not worth mentioning. The bottom line is you should not add anything to your Mac. Big Sur has both anti-virus and anti-malware built right in. From Apple:

"The technically sophisticated runtime protections in macOS work at the very core of your Mac to keep your system safe from malware. This starts with state-of-the-art antivirus software built in to block and remove malware."

 

[Apple_Robert]

Not true, but there are so few of them that it's not worth mentioning. The bottom line is you should not add anything to your Mac. Big Sur has both anti-virus and anti-malware built right in. From Apple:

What I said is true. I invite you to name any Mac virus’s in the wild.

 

[Toutou]

Not true, but there are so few of them that it's not worth mentioning.

Last time I checked this was, surprisingly, true, if you define a virus as a type of malware that infects a machine without the user's compliance. All the Mac malware out there depends on the user being negligent.

 

[WeatherWeasel]

I have been using for about a year the paid version of Bitdefender antivirus for mac. It gets high ratings but also a very small footprint. I do have 32g Ram but.. I have had some antivirus that slows things down to a crawl. free stuff isn't that great.

 

[Gregg2]

Intego's Virus Barrier (free version) gets rave reviews. I don't run any AV on my Mac, but if you need it for some reason, this is one that will perform well.