Total number of files on my Mac?

Choclit99 wrote:

Yes, I should have said Malware rather than virus for the reasons stated. But the bottom line is that the built-in protections are not sufficient

I respectfully disagree. the weak link in macOS is us, the end users.

I think it would be worth your time to read Effective defenses against malware and other threats - Apple Community. it's a long article, but worth your time to read every word.

To add to previous posters suggestion

There are no known Windows-like Viruses in the wild that self replicate and affect macOS, because of the underling UNIX  Foundation and Permission Limitation. 

Starting in macOS 11 Big Sur and above. 

The Operating System resides in a Sealed and Read Only Volume that can not be opened by the User nor by Third Party Applications.

Any of the below should be removed as per Developers Instructions 

Third Party Security Software 

Intego AntiVirus

Read some of the posting and arrive at your own conclusions.

The The Built in Security  is all that is required.

I shall defer to the more learned colleague KiltedTim on your question

Though, as mentioned the Sealed and Read Only Volume would be protected.

What would be infected with whatever Bad Actor Software was installed.

Would be the User Account and would require purposeful and willful actions by the User ( you ) to circumvent the Builtin Security offered in macOS

Just to name a few

Boot process for a Mac with Apple silicon - Apple Support (CA)

Intro to app security for macOS - Apple Support (CA)

well, I'm glad that intego "seems" to have helped you. and in some ways it may have. but you should also read the link (thanks P. Phillips) to some of the postings here regarding the use of Intego AntiVirus. among other reasons, it can and does report false issues so you think it is helping.

if you really want to rely on "anti-malware" software, the only one I recommend would be the trial or paid version of malwarebytes. (the free trial version is good enough for most) but even if you try that, you should only run it if you feel you may have picked up some new malware. leaving it running in the background causes a whole other set of issues.

Choclit99 wrote:

For those of you on the "viruses can't infect a Mac" kick, that is total bs.

It's not that it's impossible... however, there are no known viruses in the wild that can infect macOS.

My wife's iMac suddenly started running incredibly slow about a week ago. I quickly discovered this was the well described kernal_task problem where Activity Monitor showed that this process was using up about 1000% of the available CPU time (is the new new math? I thought 100% was the maximum...). I went through all of the recommended trouble shooting steps, resetting things, etc., before I called Apple. I upgraded the OS which was one version behind, all to no avail. The Apple guy recommended checking for malware as the next step. The program he recommended didn't run for some reason but after doing some online research I ended up getting the trial version of Intego, which I ran overnight on my wife's iMac. It found 10 suspect files, five of which were labelled as Trojans, some quite evil. After making sure my backups were up to date, I let Intego "repair" things. It deleted all 10 "problems". I rebooted her system and it is now working perfectly. I am now running Intego on my Mac Studio, which has been running great but why not? I will be curious to see what it finds on my system, as I am a lot more careful than my wife, but I am surprised how many files are on my Studio and was curious to see if there was an easy way to learn the total number of files on my system.

"Malware" ≠ "virus".

They are two different things.

A trojan is a program masquerading as something useful in order to con you into installing it.

Nothing can be installed on your Mac without your cooperation and approval.

And malware doesn’t install itself without the user’s knowledge. A web site cannot install malware without you, the user, authorizing it. You may have not been paying attention when you clicked on something. Or you may have succumbed to a phishing scam. Again, none of this happens without the user authorizing it. There are no viruses nor are there self-installing malware known for macOS. And Windows these days is pretty much the same.

Take jefferythefrog’s advice and use the trial version of Malwarebyes to check for known malware, not an anti-virus app.