Microsoft Defender

[AdmiralKirk]

I have recently bought a new MacBook Pro 14 M4 Pro with 48gb unified memory and 2TB of storage.

This is me “coming home” to the Mac after being forced to use windows for work for the last 10 years.

I use my laptop for business use with heavy reliance on Microsoft 365. Bundled with that is Microsoft Defender.

I’ve set it up, it seems to work quietly in the background without causing any issues, and I’m guessing it will help me avoid passing on Windows malware as its primary job, and maybe protecting me against the odd exploit for Mac assuming Apple don’t get to it quickly enough?

I’m just worried because I’m not sure of the quality of this “Microsoft Defender for Mac”, and that by installing it I may have set up my laptop for system stability issues now or in the future or other laggy behaviour that wouldn’t exist had I not installed this 🤦🏼‍♂️

Have I done something incredibly stupid?

 

[960design]

Installing Microsoft Defender on your Mac has added an additional vector for malicious software to access your system. If you trust Microsoft's Defender more than Apple's gatekeeper, then leave it; otherwise remove it.

I use the native Apple Pages, Keynote and Numbers applications for all 'business' uses.

 

[Alameda]

Sequoia has a lot of built-in security, including a built-in virus checker. The entire OS boots from a signed image to ensure its integrity. Of course, malicious hackers will try to attack it and some may succeed, but it’s certainly not easy to attack a standard MacOS 15 installation. The most important step is to always install Apple’s security updates.