My thoughts on Malware and Macs

[Cthulhu7747]

Any recommendations of ad-blockers?

Also you can get routers that have anti virus and malware so if you want to spend a bit of money, you can go down that route and that's the best solution of all.

pfSense + pfBlockerNG = zero cost if you have an old PC or Mac that is compatible. Intel NICs are the most recommended to use with pfSense. I personally use a Qotom i5 mini PC with four Intel NICs, 8 GB RAM, and 120 GB SSD (for greater log storage)... the CPU usage is usually below 5%.

 

[xnsys]

There's an even better product that's free for home users - Sophos XG or Sophos UTM...

Both have AV scanning at perimeter, and can do SSL scanning too.

 

[Super Spartan]

How come Malwarebytes finishes a scan in literally 1 second on my system? What kind of Voodoo magic is this?

 

[Anarchy99]

How come Malwarebytes finishes a scan in literally 1 second on my system? What kind of Voodoo magic is this?

a lack of credible threats on the mac and Apple's propensity for fast storage doesn't hurt either

 

[bsamcash]

+1 for pi-hole. It only works on whatever network you set it up, but it does block all ads and pop ups with domains that do not match the site you’re on. So just don’t go to givemetrojans.com and you’ll be fine.

 

[Apple_Glen_UK]

How come Malwarebytes finishes a scan in literally 1 second on my system? What kind of Voodoo magic is this?

I recently downloaded Malwarebytes for my MacBook Pro and having had it for 4.5 years I expected it to find something on my machine but was surprised at how quickly it scans. When I run SUPERAntiSpyware on my wife's Lenovo laptop even a 'quick scan' takes about 10 minutes!

 

[sprague.rod]

DetectX Swift is what I use for Malware scan and removal. AdGuard extension works very well for Safari or the system wide version which costs money.
None of the malware scanners take long to run in macOS because of the file structure (which says something about Windows).
Get rid of Chrome and either use AdBlock on Firefox plus Ghostery for Trackers or go the whole way and use Brave Browser with all its filters on and your dad can block everything, including bogus Flash update suggestions. If there is no Flash preference panel in System Preferences you don't even have Flash installed and if you do you can uninstall or update it from there.