Should we download an antivirus or Malware on Mac or is it not necessary considering the inbuilt protection Mac OS already have?
Can you please recommend which is the best malware and antivirus programme for Macs? Thanks
[Re-Titled by Moderator]
MacBook Air 13″, macOS 14.6
Load it all. Your Mac will then run like hot garbage of course, your metadata and web browsing activities will quite possibly be collected and re-sold, but you’ll cure your need to treat macOS in 2025 like Windows in 2005. 😜
But slightly more seriously, a whole lot of what I’d consider data-collecting or problematic apps or malware now have a EULA, an advertising budget, and are intentionally installed by the user as “security” apps.
And macOS itself has built-in anti-malware (as does Windows in 2025 BTW, with the built-in Defender anti-virus), and the macOS anti-malware XProtect and XProtect Remediator and the read-only system works well for most folks’ needs.
One well-known add-on was fined for uploading and selling personally-identified browsing and web purchasing history. Not fined because they did that, but fined because they didn’t disclose it in the fine print. Another well-known security add-on was reporting a macOS component as malware for multiple months. And add-ons have erroneously tried to delete parts of macOS itself, though that was blocked by the built-in anti-malware.
And then we get into the add-on VPN apps, badly solving a problem that hasn’t existed for a ~decade, and badly solving it in a way perfect for personalized metadata collection.
There’s probably legitimate add-on anti-malware around, though its incremental value over the built-in anti-malware somewhere between negligible and questionable.
Unless you need add-on end-point security, add-on “security “ apps don’t get you much if anything, and do tend to be noisy.
Some related reading: Effective defenses against malware and other threats - Apple Community
TL;DR: no.
Load it all. Your Mac will then run like hot garbage of course, your metadata and web browsing activities will quite possibly be collected and re-sold, but you’ll cure your need to treat macOS in 2025 like Windows in 2005. 😜
But slightly more seriously, a whole lot of what I’d consider data-collecting or problematic apps or malware now have a EULA, an advertising budget, and are intentionally installed by the user as “security” apps.
And macOS itself has built-in anti-malware (as does Windows in 2025 BTW, with the built-in Defender anti-virus), and the macOS anti-malware XProtect and XProtect Remediator and the read-only system works well for most folks’ needs.
One well-known add-on was fined for uploading and selling personally-identified browsing and web purchasing history. Not fined because they did that, but fined because they didn’t disclose it in the fine print. Another well-known security add-on was reporting a macOS component as malware for multiple months. And add-ons have erroneously tried to delete parts of macOS itself, though that was blocked by the built-in anti-malware.
And then we get into the add-on VPN apps, badly solving a problem that hasn’t existed for a ~decade, and badly solving it in a way perfect for personalized metadata collection.
There’s probably legitimate add-on anti-malware around, though its incremental value over the built-in anti-malware somewhere between negligible and questionable.
Unless you need add-on end-point security, add-on “security “ apps don’t get you much if anything, and do tend to be noisy.
Some related reading: Effective defenses against malware and other threats - Apple Community
TL;DR: no.
It's not necessary.
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Is it necessary to install antivirus software on a Mac?
