I am not say with computers I have a Mac air and was needing to know if apple has something built in Mac air that I can turn on in settings that will keep my Mac air protected from viruses and malware
[Re-Titled by Moderator]
Ignoring the ontological debate about the hierarchy of malware for the moment...
Apple has a built-in anti-malware service called X-Protect. It is always on and needs no user interaction. It does a number of things:
As other have noted, this doesn't protect you fro installing malware yourself by providing you password if you aren't vigilant about what you download, or click through.
Ignoring the ontological debate about the hierarchy of malware for the moment...
Apple has a built-in anti-malware service called X-Protect. It is always on and needs no user interaction. It does a number of things:
As other have noted, this doesn't protect you fro installing malware yourself by providing you password if you aren't vigilant about what you download, or click through.
g_wolfman wrote:
Apple has a built-in anti-malware service called X-Protect. It is always on and needs no user interaction.
Also, in recent versions of macOS, part of the system code is located in a cryptographically signed, sealed system volume. At startup time, macOS mounts a read-only snapshot of this volume and boots from that.
Obviously malware can try to attack stuff outside of the system volume. But anything that tries to modify this core system code is going to have a very hard time, because
The rough analogy would be installing a metal door, a metal doorframe, and a hard-to-pick deadbolt lock. Good luck kicking in the door after that!
Hello, rachelle1975.
The Mac has anti-virus and anti-malware built in. It is always on and always running.
It updates itself regularly and there's no need to add anything else.
Here is an overview of what is included with macOS:
• macOS security built right in. - Apple Support
• App Security Overview - Apple Support
In addition, here are links to a couple of short articles with guidance that can help you protect yourself and your Mac from bad actors:
• Effective Defenses Against Malware - Apple Community
• Avoid phishing emails, fake 'virus' alerts…and other scams - Apple Support
It's always active and doesn't need to be turned on.
(257972)
A virus and malware are exactly the same thing. Malware is simply short for malicious software.
You cannot get a virus as none has existed on the Mac since the release of OS X, 10.0, almost 24 years ago.
Nothing will stop a Trojan (malware the user must install in some manner) if you aren't paying attention as to where you obtain your software from.
Some reading that may help:
What is malware? - Apple Community
Be sure to follow the link at the bottom to John Galt's tip on avoiding malware.
These days, a big part of computer security is learning to recognize, and not fall for, “phishing” messages and scams.
Criminals have learned that it is easier to target the person behind the keyboard, and to trick that person into compromising their own security, than to target the computer or phone itself. The result is a torrent of scam attempts, delivered by every form of electronic communication known to human kind, on a daily basis. Many of the scams perversely play on victims’ fears that their devices have been “infected” with “viruses”, or have been “hacked.”
A virus is a type of malware that spreads copies of itself to other pieces of code, such as applications or scripts.
The analogy is to biological viruses like common cold viruses, or the smallpox virus, which invade cells in the body and turn the infected cells into virus factories. That is how computer viruses got that name.
if a piece of malware is not designed to spread itself, but “merely” to, say, encrypt all your data and hold it for ransom, that piece of malware is not a virus. Any more than a gunshot wound administered by some thug in a back alley would be.
Yes, it does. A virus is "malicious software", just as a Trojan or worm are. You can't separate a virus out of the malware category since the term malware is a generic phrase that refers to anything you wouldn't want on your device.
For whatever reason, I can't pick up a Google search phrase on my iPad as anything but straight text. But, use this phrase in a search:
is a virus malware
I didn't see any pages that didn't agree a virus and malware are the same thing. Or, as I said in my user tip, and is repeated on many of the Google returns, a virus is one type of malware. As is a Trojan or worm.
Kurt Lang wrote:
Yes, it does. A virus is "malicious software", just as a Trojan or worm are. You can't separate a virus out of the malware category since the term malware is a generic phrase that refers to anything you wouldn't want on your device.
You said "A virus and malware are exactly the same thing."
All red cars are, by definition, cars. But there are many cars that are not red, so red cars (as a group) and cars (as a group) are not the exactly same thing. There are many types of malware that are not viruses. Therefore viruses (as a group) and malware (as a group) are not exactly the same thing.
You said "A virus and malware are exactly the same thing."
Yes, I see that. A poor choice of one extra word I didn't use in my user tip for just that reason. No idea why I did here.
A virus and malware are the same. - correct
A virus and malware are exactly the same. - incorrect
Per your analogy, you could also incorrectly use exactly in a phrase like, Photoshop and Angry Birds are exactly the same, for no reason other than the fact both are software titles. But it's still wrong.
>A virus and malware are exactly the same thing.
The definition of malware includes worms, spyware, and other varieties of it. The definition of viruses doesn't.
(257976)
How do I enable built-in virus and malware protection on my MacBook Air?
