Grantisa wrote:
Thank you, should I remove Bitdefender Antivirus as well
Given it is leaving “droppings”, I can only wonder about the rest of this app, and about how secure the coding practices of this app might actually be. Anti-malware is itself a huge target for exploitation, and (as the US Government reported a while back) more than a few security breaches have been through flaws in the add-on anti-malware and add-on security apps. (e.g. solarwinds)
One of the well-known add-on security apps for macOS was uploaded its user web activity and purchases for resale, and personally-identified. I suspect other add-ons are doing similar.
The built-in Apple-provided anti-malware (XProtect, XProtect Remediator, etc.) works fine against typical threats, is not noisy, and is kept updated. This in addition to System Integrity Protection, and the read-only system volume, and app notarization and the app store, among other details. (details: Apple Platform Security - Apple Support)
(We had a fun time around here a few weeks back, where some add-on anti-malware glitched and was mis-identifying a macOS file as hilariously ancient unrelated malware, and the built-in macOS anti-malware was blocking the add-on anti-malware from deleting an important part of macOS and causing a corruption.)
Add-on first-few-hops VPNs protect against problems which haven’t existed for many years, while adding negligible benefit. They’re thankfully fading in popularity, but still get hyped. Some of the VPN vendors involved here are… sketchy, too.
Since you’re asking about anti-malware… You will also always want backups. Time Machine or otherwise. These are central to recovering from crashes, corruptions, accidental deletions, and yes, malware where that has arisen. And from add-on cleaners and add-on malware that has corrupted something.
More reading: Effective defenses against malware and ot… - Apple Community
No, I would not generally recommend nor install add-on anti-malware. (Add-on end-point security in a moderate-sized or larger entity, yes, but for end users? No.) Keep your Mac updated and upgraded, no cracked apps and no torrented apps, and downloads from Apple and the app store and vendor sites, and you should be fine.
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