Do you use antivirus and VPN on Mac?

[Madhatter32]

While not an anti-virus or VPN, I have something called Trusteer Rapport that was installed through my bank's website for endpoint protection. I am convinced that it does not do anything in particular for me or my device (it is supposed to protect on-line banking accounts), but my bank asked me to install it so I complied.

 

[phrehdd]

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.

Gregg, take a browse as it were and you'll find there are a handful of malware/virus out there that can impact modern Macs. Check out the PoC Silver Sparrow as an unhappy but amusing history of one item out there.

 

[phrehdd]

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.

VPN isn't a solution but part of a program or set of tools to help people. Personal computer traffic controlling, malware tools, VPN all work together to help people surf the Wild West aka internet with a bit more security and yes, ISPs are not always to be trusted. HTTPS is as said, a useful security measure, however it is only as good as the other side's set up as us Mac users have zero control over it. Also, not all sites use HTTP and while a great rule of thumb is not to engage them, many still do. Does every potential connection use HTTP or HTTPS? No. Some gaming services are not connecting their customers in such a fashion and also again, we don't know what is going on with the other side with respect to sensitive information being sent back (weak encryption means or clear text etc.).

I don't think VPN in itself is sufficient and where we firmly agree is that HTTPS for typical websites is a must. If you go to HTTP (unsecured), you take several more risks and while VPN isn't going to change malicious actions on the other side, it will help zero out in most cases "outsiders" to your activity.

Though I am not a gamer, there is one argument out there (someone else can validate or not) that VPN can sidestep in some instances, throttling. I would imagine for a gamer this would be a must* for certain gaming situations.

VPN might seem attractive for many but remember, many major sites such as Amazon, Netflix and other sites that are also services, may block VPN usage. Here, HTTPS is the way to go or another secured connection method.

Toutou, as this is a discussion, we are not all going to agree or disagree or perhaps agree with some parts of people's posts. I absolutely agree that HTTPS being widely used does make a difference and then the question remains if it is set up on the other side in a manner that exploits this security measure.

 

[Gregg2]

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 used to have Malwarebytes installed. I never used it. Since getting my new Mac last month, I haven't bothered to download it again.

 

[Gregg2]

Check out the PoC Silver Sparrow as an unhappy but amusing history of one item out there.

I found this, on Wikipedia:

On 23 February 2021, a spokesperson of Apple Inc. stated that "there is no evidence to suggest the malware they (Malwarebytes) identified has delivered a malicious payload to infected users." Apple also revoked the certificates of the developer accounts used to sign the packages, thereby preventing any additional Macs from becoming infected.

 

[phrehdd]

I found this, on Wikipedia:

On 23 February 2021, a spokesperson of Apple Inc. stated that "there is no evidence to suggest the malware they (Malwarebytes) identified has delivered a malicious payload to infected users." Apple also revoked the certificates of the developer accounts used to sign the packages, thereby preventing any additional Macs from becoming infected.

Thanks for sharing this. Nice that Apple acknowledges that it does exist and they took action after noted cases. Again, a response and not a preventative action.

 

[MarineBand5524]

Absolutely!

I use Trend Micro for 19.99 a year and NordVPN.

I'm also waiting on the Pro version of Invizbox for extra protection to run multiple instances of VPN (mostly used for TV, so I can watch live LPGA through YouTube. HAHA)