I have McAfee total protection not happy its going to expire. what does Apple recommend best for my MBP 2021 M1 pro chip and macOS Sonoma.
MacBook Pro 14″, macOS 14.5
MacAfee Total Protection is protecting you from nothing. There are no viruses, and AV software can do nothing to stop the user from installing Trojans.
The only thing AV software excels at is eating up system resources for nothing useful in return.
You've already received a lot of great answers and links, but to address the one point in particular, there no official guide for this information.
By that, I don't mean any of the advice and links given so far aren't true. They are all factual. I'm referring to finding truthful information online in general.
When you do a search for "mac viruses", you get a ridiculous number of matches. Problem is, every single one of them stating they have a list of viruses is wrong. You get straight out lies, even from security companies that should know better. Like this one:
https://us.norton.com/blog/malware/can-macs-get-viruses
They say yes. But if you look at the list of "virus" types, every single one of them is a Trojan. Viruses are, specifically, self-replicating software. They require no action on the part of the user to spread. All items listed on Norton's page are Trojans. All such malware requires the user to do something to infect your Mac. None of it can get there by itself.
I find it both galling and just plain deceitful for any security to call a Trojan a virus. They should know better, but calling them viruses is nothing but click bait. It draws users in on a search. Worse, it perpetuates the idea there are indeed Mac viruses because, well, Norton said so. And they can't be wrong, can they?
This is only one of many sites you can find making the same mistake. Often because they:
Third Party Security Software
This will included Norton Antivirus
FTC Order Will Ban Avast from Selling Browsing Data for Advertising Purposes, Require It to Pay $16.5 Million Over Charges the Firm Sold Browsing Data After Claiming Its Products Would Block Online Tracking
FTC says despite its promises to protect consumers from online tracking, Avast sold consumers' browsing data to third parties
Webroot ,
ESET ,
Avira ,
➡️ Read some of the posting and arrive at your own conclusions. ⬅️
The Built in Security is all that is required.
The Operating System resides in a Sealed and Read Only Volume that cannot be opened by the User nor by Third Party Applications.
Therefore, if a Virus did exist for macOS, which they do not
The only area that would be affected would be in the User Account and not the Operating System itself
If you allow the Social Media Influences shape your opinion on Third Party Security Software, they have done a good job of spreading False Information
To Ozzie 1910, Thanks for your time and answering my question. So thats good news for me only if I can confirm of what you are saying, can you please guide me to read some documents about your answer? Thanks for your help.
to Kurt Lang, thanks for your time and answering my question, are you able to show prove of what you are saying. Please dont think that I do not believe you I just want to read about it. Can you guide me or tell me where I find this info. Thanks for your help.
For further enlightening on the topic of keeping your mac secure, this excellent post by a long time contributor should be mandatory reading for all users...
hey Rob for short hope thats cool, U ask whats on my mind? My mind is blown away from all these very cool responses. I learned a few things today and one is, Ive got a lot to learn. I want to thank you and the others who took the time a became my teachers today. VERY COOL
None Mac with intel chip or M chip needs or requires any antivirus because none Mac can get virus , uninstall any antivirus
I have the exact same MacBook Pro and I believe Ozzie and Kurt’s answer below is correct 👍
which third party virus protection venders works best on MacBook Pro 2021 with M1 chip and macOS Sonoma
