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The best antivirus

Which are the best antivirus software?

MacBook Air, OS X El Capitan (10.11.3)

Posted on Aug 21, 2016 4:49 PM

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12 replies

May 8, 2017 8:29 AM in response to lechinhpro

its fine as long as you don't own a mac or put it on someone elses.

Until then it's never been faced with an actual mac threat and if one came into being it's response is still in question. What is not in question are a number of posts here where Kaspersky has crippled OS X or caused problems running on a Mac. The fact they have a reputation as a Windows product means nothing, they make snake oil for mac. Avoid it or you will likely spend your time here asking for help and the root cause of the issues is Kaspersky or some other Windows reputable product that has a documented history of inferring with OS X's ability to manage itself.

May 8, 2017 9:35 AM in response to doggies1991

It seems as though this post went active....


There is a A/V that is mac specific called Intego.....(Cost)

There is a Malware Product called Malwarebytes...(free)


I know that there is a product called sophos (free)


* please review these products and see if they would benefit you...

personally, I prefer Kaspersky (have had no issues) and Malwarebytes....but that is my humble opinion

May 11, 2017 5:48 AM in response to michaelsip4

Kaspersky and Sophos have caused compelte destabliztion to users who installed them on their macs. The forums here are littered with cases of this.

MWB works but it is not AV it's malware/adware removal when variants are found, but it does not protect you against getting them and never claimed to. The AV products on Mac that claim to do this have a appalling history of failing when actually confronted with a threat and are far more likely to conflict with the OS, throw a false positive or cause issues ranging from slowing down the system to kernel panics.

May 11, 2017 6:51 AM in response to JimmyCMPIT

Jimmy,


In all sincerity I am not attempting to debate your point. I am just thinking out loud.


When, I purchased my first mac about 10 years ago...I was lucky enough to get caught up into the debate of

do Macs need a AV or not (I'm Sure you have been there) Macs are unix (secure) no need for AV...AV makes

macs unstable.


I was lucky enough to enter into dialogs with mac experts.....and the take away was, if you are intelligent in your use...turn on all of the apple security features you will be safe...the only person in theory who can hurt you is you.


However, there have been issues Trojans, Malware etc targeting Macs where people get infected and they are intelligent users. As the mac market share increases, Im sure the potential risk will continue increase.


That is where the concern is........no product, software is perfect.


Regarding Destabilization

How many of the horror stories are really end user error based

(not reading a/v materials or not knowing how to use the product correctly)

Eg: its on, Its updated, Auto Detect, Auto Remove detected issues === we will never know


Regarding Slow Down

As for the time lag, your putting a A/V which scans onto your computer

One should expect a slow down.


But the bottom line issue is that people want to be safe......

There has been no position from apple that you do or do not need a A/V

You hear that your mac is safe, so that a dormant windows virus will not hurt you (on the mac)

You hear about malware and trojans impacting macs

and if you are trying to be safe "no product, software is perfect" AV comes to mind.


I believe it is up to each individual to explore all options, related to their own personal safety

from the informed consumer perspective and depending on how far they want to take it

(speak with the a/v vendors) (speak with apple)

not some retail sales person or board (which may have a bias)


I don't work for apple software or an A/V company so I do not know

what the real answer is....


I just have to make certain, I feel safe online AV or No AV using my Mac

and I believe that in having information, references, companies allows me

to make that choice.

May 11, 2017 8:05 AM in response to michaelsip4

My response was based on what has been presented here and what I have had to deal with in my profession when a Windows centric solution is applied to a Mac pipeline, and that is causing problems that did not exist without it.

Mac AV products are offering no more security than running a system without them and they appear to have a history of casing serious problems. The retailers do not get attention from Apple as they do from Microsoft, the developers do not put the same amount of development time to create the product and the results of people using these products and coming to these forums with issues clearly show this. As my suggestion says, check the forums. If it makes you 'feel safe online" then thats your decision, but it's not proven on Mac to actually provide that, it's more likely to throw a false positive or in the case of AVG last month try and alter system files that it incorrectly identified as compromised, or the PCWorld article that identified a Mac Anti-Virus product as having an exploit that facilitated an attack which would have otherwise not worked on OS X. The two most serious deployments this year and last were cases where a compromised mirror site to facilitate a bogus bit torrent client and a bogus DVD copying application, in both cases these were questionable software packages and more importantly no anti-virus suite ever detected it. A patch came from Apple after Palo Alto labs announced this but Apple never specified what that patch did, they never do, they don't pull a Microsoft and explain to the hacker community what they did. Safe browsing and keeping your mac up-to-date are still the best security policies for Mac at this time, and while it may change the evidence to support is here.

Aug 21, 2016 4:52 PM in response to doggies1991

Hello doggies1991,

At this time, there is no commonly recommended Mac antivirus software. There are many ports of Windows antivirus programs. And they are true ports from Windows, because all they do is scan your Mac for harmless Windows malware, slow down your Mac, and cause other problems. There are a couple of Mac apps that are useful to remove the kinds of adware and malware that Mac users often get, but they aren't as invasive as true "antivirus" software.


Is there a reason why you are asking?

The best antivirus

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