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Do you use antivirus and VPN on Mac?
- Thread starter PowerPCFan
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I remember back when viruses actually were a thing for Mac OS, and using Symmantec Anti-Virus to find and remove them from hard drives and floppy disks. And not that there aren't any being written today, but honestly it isn't really a problem that can't be handled by other means (be careful who you accept files and media from, don't go to warez sites, pr0n sites, etc.) and frankly none of that software is going to defend you against the far more common phishing, spear phishing, etc. that goes on today.
I use a free av and vpn because I notice that sometimes there are vulnerabilities for MacOS that are retro-actively patched from apple. And also occasional unix/linux vulnerabilities that may or may not apply to MacOS security.
On my bootcamp mode in Windows 10 I have to be vigilant as well so in my opinion its rather better to be safe and sure than sorry for ignorance. There are more and more MacOS malware being made as well ! I use Avira VPN, Bitdefender AV and Malwarebytes on Mac and in Windows I use Microsoft Defender, Malwarebytes and Glasswire. I can also recommend MacOS Server, Zenmap and Wireshark for analysis.
On my bootcamp mode in Windows 10 I have to be vigilant as well so in my opinion its rather better to be safe and sure than sorry for ignorance. There are more and more MacOS malware being made as well ! I use Avira VPN, Bitdefender AV and Malwarebytes on Mac and in Windows I use Microsoft Defender, Malwarebytes and Glasswire. I can also recommend MacOS Server, Zenmap and Wireshark for analysis.
I try to remember to run Malwarebytes before and after installing an app that's not via the App Store.
It isn't just that it's also that Apple has a lot of special protections built into the OS, a firewall, encryptions, and the fact that generally if there is a major hole or something serious Apple is pretty good about patching it up or stopping it.
I remember back in the day when I would go to ROM sites for SNES and NES roms that as soon as I got them some random exe would try to download onto my Mac but that's why you use a Mac ;-).
With system volume being sealed since the 11.0, I am wondering if malware is even able to do anything destructive.
Spyware, ransomware and crypto jacking is still possible though. Ransomware for example, maybe it won’t be able to encrypt the whole OS, but it can encrypt your precious data.
Spyware doesn’t even need access to system files, it can just run as some unsuspecting program in the background
Oh, to add to be on topic, I use VPN. ProtonVPN to be exact (I already use their mail, so I thought heck, why don’t I use their VPN too when I already want to use VPN)
Spyware, ransomware and crypto jacking is still possible though. Ransomware for example, maybe it won’t be able to encrypt the whole OS, but it can encrypt your precious data.
Spyware doesn’t even need access to system files, it can just run as some unsuspecting program in the background
Oh, to add to be on topic, I use VPN. ProtonVPN to be exact (I already use their mail, so I thought heck, why don’t I use their VPN too when I already want to use VPN)
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anyone who is not using a totally ancient MacOS (10, maybe 20 years old OS) is using anti virus and anti malware software, as they are already built into the OS.
They are just running in the background, practically invisible to the user.
But yes, i'd also prefer if there was a "right click -> scan selected file(s) / folder(s) / volume(s)" in finder so you can scan some random USB stick beforehand or do an occasional complete system scan for the piece of mind
They are just running in the background, practically invisible to the user.
But yes, i'd also prefer if there was a "right click -> scan selected file(s) / folder(s) / volume(s)" in finder so you can scan some random USB stick beforehand or do an occasional complete system scan for the piece of mind
They are to Trojans! Mailwarebytes is only one I trust to scan for Mac trojans! the freee user version is free to home users and it only scans when you push the scan button! The year paid version is auto scanning!
The particular VPN I used was not my top choice but the one with the best deal at the time. It works reasonably well.
As for the AV, yes I do use it but it is not "live." It is turned on during certain tasks such as certain types of downloads and other higher risk tasks. Every few weeks, a deep scan. If someone tells you Macs cannot or don't get viruses, they are, to put it politely, missing information.
As for the AV, yes I do use it but it is not "live." It is turned on during certain tasks such as certain types of downloads and other higher risk tasks. Every few weeks, a deep scan. If someone tells you Macs cannot or don't get viruses, they are, to put it politely, missing information.
is it completely off when not launched manually, or is it always running in the background and can be seen in the activity monitor?
I don't use a VPN, and it's because the answer to that question is "none".
(I'm using the term "VPN" to mean "proxy with a nice name", like NordVPN, not an actual VPN set up for e.g. being able to access your home NAS from the internet)
There, I said it. Using a VPN won't protect you from anything in any way.
Almost all traffic from and to your machine is already encrypted (HTTPS) and the stuff that isn't (like DNS) is a matter of privacy, not security.
Privacy-wise, using a VPN will hide that tiny remaining bit of data you might be leaking (like DNS, essentially "websites you're looking at", not specific pages, just hosts like facebook.com or youtube.com) and then expose all that somewhere else, where your ISP can't see it, but everyone else can, including your VPN provider, any router on the way from the VPN provider to the DNS server and the DNS server itself.
Please note that the VPN provider sees the exact same traffic as the malicious coffee shop owner whose WiFi you're on would see if you weren't using a VPN, i.e. huge chunks of encrypted traffic to visible and readable IP addresses.
Now this part might be important, because hiding stuff from your ISP is a legitimate concern in countries like China or Russia, or if you're forced to use an ISP who's a piece of crap and will try to block or throttle certain types of traffic (traffic to IPs known to belong to Netflix or torrent trackers etc.).
This is where using a VPN service makes sense, if you're really really really concerned about privacy and you trust your VPN provider more than your ISP or country (it sounds ridiculous because it is).
At the same time, using a VPN won't stop Google or Facebook following you all around the web, because Google and Facebook don't give a damn about your IP address, they use much smarter techniques like browser fingerprinting, tracking cookies and having their tracking Javascript on almost all websites you ever visit.
tl;dr "VPN" services like NordVPN are useless security theatre unless what you want is watching unavailable movies on Netflix.
Quite right, instead of your ISP knowing which sites you visit now your VPN knows. Sure, you are hiding your IP from the websites you visit, but that doesn't help a lot.
On the contrary, the missing information is the name of a virus in the wild that has ever been detected since Mac OSX was originally released. There's a good reason for that.
I wouldn't say cannot, but definitely have not, and most likely will not.
This premise, however, clings to the idea that these sorts of products are still called "antivirus" apps, and it's outdated. Strictly speaking, sure there has not been a virus, but there's plenty of malware, and that's what users today need to be concerned with.
I personally do not run a 3rd party malware protection app on a regular basis but have from time to time run Malwarebytes to scan.
I only use a VPN when I am traveling and never at home. No Anti V as there is just no real world proof that I need it either.
