antivirus software

Of course there’s conflicting information. There’s a whole lot of money to be made installing dreck tools and dreck software and dreck apps, and a whole lot of information to be scanned and acquired from the unwary! Think I’m kidding? Some of the better-known anti-malware stuff was selling your web activities and your online purchasing history.

Outside of end-point security and similar requirements, use the built-in anti-malware tools.

Some related reading:

Effective defenses against malware and other threats - Apple Community

Unless you're concerned about Windows malware, all the protection you need is built into the OS or gotten by not downloading software from sources other than the Mac App Store or the developer websites. If desired, click here and run the tool.

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Brand New MacBook Pro 13 M1 here

As I have also a Windows PC, Androide Phone and Tablet I use Bitdefender Total Security for all 5 devices.

It works great and the 5 devices can be whatever OS and it's not expensive too.

I can recommend it, found some email viruses from the imported PC Thunderbird mail files.

They may would not run under MacOS, but I'm rather safe than sorry and the +/- 50$ are worth it.

Chris