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What antivirus app the Apple engineers and executives are using the most?

J

Joe's kitchen

macrumors newbie
Original poster
Apr 16, 2021
19
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What antivirus app the Apple engineers and executives are using the most when connecting to the internet on their personal macOS devices at home?

Avast, AVG, Avira, Bitdefender, Comodo, Eset, F-Secure, G Data, Intego, Kaspersky, McAfee, Malwarebytes, Norton, Sophos, Trend Micro.....

And are they using any third-party firewall app like mentioned above?

Whatever the app must be the best choice for anyone too although they would never tell you publicly.
 
There are a dozen macOS security products out there. But hard to pick one because the vendors are pretending to be like theirs are the best.

Untrustworthy review articles are everywhere. They are often paid or with bias without necessary knowledge.

So those macOS security engineers (and their boss) must be the best people to ask.

Apple might have some contract with one or a few vendors for their office use, but it's confidential and they would never tell you. And it doesn't always mean they are using the best product for security, because business decisions are complicated.

I'm not sure if the macOS engineers are still tied with NDA when talking about their private selection of antivirus/firewall product for home use.

Perhaps ex-engineers or their family or friends could tell us?
 
3rd party antivirus are all garbage and a cash grab which offer no benefit other than to give you the illusion of security via placebo effect as well as to enrich whoever is receiving the monthly subscription fees. You've made a terrible mistaking in assuming that an Apple engineer would knowingly build an inferior product which requires a paid subscription to a 3rd party solution to become usable. Any article claiming they are necessary are all paid product endorsements funded by makers of these useless products.
 
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How would you verify that someone claiming to be an Apple engineer really is one?

Untrustworthy people making unverifiable claims are everywhere.
 
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Joe's kitchen said:
There are a dozen macOS security products out there. But hard to pick one because the vendors are pretending to be like theirs are the best.

Untrustworthy review articles are everywhere. They are often paid or with bias without necessary knowledge.

So those macOS security engineers (and their boss) must be the best people to ask.

Apple might have some contract with one or a few vendors for their office use, but it's confidential and they would never tell you. And it doesn't always mean they are using the best product for security, because business decisions are complicated.

I'm not sure if the macOS engineers are still tied with NDA when talking about their private selection of antivirus/firewall product for home use.

Perhaps ex-engineers or their family or friends could tell us?
Click to expand...
Are in you in an Apple only environment? If so, I don't think you need anything outside of a good adblocker. MacOS has built in safeguards against Malware etc.

Protecting against malware in macOS

In macOS, malware defenses are structured using the followingApp Store, or Gatekeeper combined with Notarization, and XProtect.
support.apple.com
 
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>Are in you in an Apple only environment? If so, I don't think you need anything outside of a good adblocker. MacOS has built in safeguards against Malware etc.

Yes, I also use Windows. I don't mind using different products for Windows and Mac though it's costly.

Is XProtect on macOS equivalent to Microsoft Defender on Windows?

>Apple support recommends Malwarebytes when possible problems occur. I use Sophos. There are good antivirus programs out there. Just check reputable reviews.

Thanks!
 
Joe's kitchen said:
What antivirus app the Apple engineers and executives are using the most when connecting to the internet on their personal macOS devices at home?

Avast, AVG, Avira, Bitdefender, Comodo, Eset, F-Secure, G Data, Intego, Kaspersky, McAfee, Malwarebytes, Norton, Sophos, Trend Micro.....

And are they using any third-party firewall app like mentioned above?

Whatever the app must be the best choice for anyone too although they would never tell you publicly.
Click to expand...

none?
 
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This gentleman on YouTube has some of the best and most informative videos on the Mac. He addresses the virus question. Worth taking a look.

 
In the environment I’m in, working with several large organizations, the protection is no longer on third-party programs for each employee but on setting the OS security settings correctly and then spending ALL the security resources on installing and managing a solid firewall. This both protects the computer and saves resources from dealing with individual machines and users.
 
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MacProFCP said:
In the environment I’m in, working with several large organizations, the protection is no longer on third-party programs for each employee but on setting the OS security settings correctly and then spending ALL the security resources on installing and managing a solid firewall. This both protects the computer and saves resources from dealing with individual machines and users.
Click to expand...
Do you use something like Barracuda?
 
Joe's kitchen said:
>Are in you in an Apple only environment? If so, I don't think you need anything outside of a good adblocker. MacOS has built in safeguards against Malware etc.

Yes, I also use Windows. I don't mind using different products for Windows and Mac though it's costly.

Is XProtect on macOS equivalent to Microsoft Defender on Windows?

>Apple support recommends Malwarebytes when possible problems occur. I use Sophos. There are good antivirus programs out there. Just check reputable reviews.

Thanks!
Click to expand...

XProtect and Gatekeeper are more silent versions of Defender and SmartScreen, yes. That said, you can't launch XProtect and have it do a scan.
 
felt. said:
3rd party antivirus are all garbage and a cash grab which offer no benefit other than to give you the illusion of security via placebo effect as well as to enrich whoever is receiving the monthly subscription fees. You've made a terrible mistaking in assuming that an Apple engineer would knowingly build an inferior product which requires a paid subscription to a 3rd party solution to become usable. Any article claiming they are necessary are all paid product endorsements funded by makers of these useless products.
Click to expand...

Windows is the same way these days. It has decent enough built in security and as long as you know what you are doing it’s enough.
 
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Malwarebytes is the only one I use. I had to protect DOS and Windows machines at work, but generally, haven't used much until lately.

Apple's inbuilt anti-malware isn't bad but considering their slow response to security issues, I would rather go with a product meant just for malware.
 
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felt. said:
3rd party antivirus are all garbage and a cash grab which offer no benefit other than to give you the illusion of security via placebo effect as well as to enrich whoever is receiving the monthly subscription fees. You've made a terrible mistaking in assuming that an Apple engineer would knowingly build an inferior product which requires a paid subscription to a 3rd party solution to become usable. Any article claiming they are necessary are all paid product endorsements funded by makers of these useless products.
Click to expand...
Yeah it's not windows 98 anymore. A little common sense goes a long way and no anti virus will make up for the lack of. The built-in security in Windows and macOS is enough for the average person.

Many of the garbage mentioned are viruses themselves considering how they infect many PC prebuilts.
 
MacProFCP said:
In the environment I’m in, working with several large organizations, the protection is no longer on third-party programs for each employee but on setting the OS security settings correctly and then spending ALL the security resources on installing and managing a solid firewall. This both protects the computer and saves resources from dealing with individual machines and users.
Click to expand...
That only works when the computers never leave the corporate network. In most scenarios we manage, where everything important is in the cloud, we've moved to less complicated firewalls and focused more on a good EDR (Endpoint Detection and Response) product on the Mac, along with SaaS monitoring and even Zero Trust to protect the data in the cloud. Security is about layers and a single product is never really enough these days. Our EDR go-to is currently Sentinel One. BTW, the term "anti-virus" isn't really even used much as a term any more in corporate IT.
 
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Proxy malware for macOS circulating since May, only now detected by Kaspersky.

Trojan-Proxy.OSX.Agent.gen.jpg
https://www.virustotal.com/gui/file...380ccadf2ab51bda6e60b921b735cbfd6e3/detection
"New proxy malware targets Mac users through pirated software" https://www.bleepingcomputer.com/ne...e-targets-mac-users-through-pirated-software/
Kaspersky (in Russian) https://securelist.ru/trojan-proxy-for-macos/108460/
 
HDFan said:
Apple support recommends Malwarebytes when possible problems occur. I use Sophos. There are good antivirus programs out there. Just check reputable reviews.
Click to expand...
Are they ones you pay for significantly better than the free ones?

Apple recommends malwarebytes though?, good to know, but I have never seen it.

I need to antivirus though...
 
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