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What virus protection is the best for a desktop MAC?
[Re-Titled by Moderator]
Hi mc248,
There are no known viruses for the Mac. Only some malware (mostly adware). But to avoid that, stay safe online and read: Effective defenses against malware and ot… - Apple Community.
Cheers,
Jack
No one
Most Anti virus apps are useless, some may get rid of some adware and nothing else. If there is some real very unsual threat will be first fixed by Apple before any Anti virus app.
Most of real issues occurs by people not using the real Apple safety measures, leaked personal data oustide the Apple software, etc..
apple.com/guide/mac-help/protect-your-mac-from-malware
Common sense, and never downloading from any website other than the original developer. As others have mentioned, you don't need any anti-virus product because macOS has built-in security and was not developed by Microsoft.
What is malware on Mac? - Apple Support
Protect your Mac from malware - Apple Support
Ways to avoid malware and harmful apps on Mac - Apple Support
Recognize and avoid phishing messages, phony support calls, and other scams - Apple Support
macOS contains powerful built-in security measures that will help you and your data to stay safe. They aren't foolproof, though. You should read the articles above.
In the event that you are infected with malware, visit https://malwarebytes.com and download the free application.
Almost everyone here will tell you the same thing. You are the weakest link to safe computing. On the Mac nearly all malware requires your help getting installed. Don’t click to allow installation of software you didn’t purposely download. If a Web site tells you malware has been found, leave the site and don’t download anything. If you do you are installing malware. If you receive a message that software update(s) are available don’t click on the links provided. Manually type in the URL of the vendor, go to the download page and download from there.
That said, I do have the freeware version of AntiMalwareBytes on my Macs and PCs and manually run the program every Saturday. I seldom find anything on any of my computer, Mac or Windows.
The best antivirus, cleaning app, and overall maintenance app for Mac OS is Mac OS itself. All you need to do with Mac OS to keep it secure and running well is to keep it up-to-date and do periodic (about 1x per week) restarts. Other than that, leave it alone. Adding third party antivirus, cleaning, security and other types of maintenance apps to Mac OS adds no additional level of security. The only thing these apps do is have the opposite affect users want. They make Mac OS slow, unstable, generate odd behavior and make Mac OS appear buggy.
Some virus utilities that run in the background continuously can slow down your Mac and not offer any real benefit or protection from virus threats that the Mac is not really vulnerable to.
However, some tools allow you to choose when to scan a particular file, say a MS Excel file with embedded macros that someone emailed you, which poses no threat to the Mac, but you might inadvertently email that along with the virus it contains back to someone's Windows PC where it may wreak havoc. So, if that is a situation that concerns you, take a look at ClamXav, but maybe just use it when you have a particular file you are suspicious of and want to scan it, like any emailed attachments received, rather than have it constantly scanning your entire hard drive. But, these days, most of the Windows PC users stay pretty up to date on those things too. So, this hypothetical example from yesteryear might not even be a very common occurrence these days.
Do not ever use Malwarebytes!
That software like many others is totally unuseful, was developed by someone (I will not disclose who) was recommending it over here and his trolls all the time. The sofware was free and it's name was AdwareMedic, soon it was sold to Malwarebytes, a company "specialized" on PC viruses.
It's not even sold under the Mac AppStore, check these reviews: trustpilot.com/review/malwarebytes.com
Just read their Privacy Policy: malwarebytes.com/privacy
Your best protection is to find by yourself, not even believing paid adverts, recommending sofware, not even here.
Cheers
THANK YOU all for your suggestions and support. You are all on the same page and this makes my decision easy. 👍
You are welcome.
What virus protection is the best for a desktop Mac?
