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Antivirus for Mac?
- Thread starter Stuart
- Start date
Stuart there are far more tech savvy people on here than I.
I have only had an iMac at home for personal use since 2007. ( the kids all have windoze laptops for school).
I have never had any antivirus software on the iMac.
I think so much depends on your discipline and way of working when opening links on dodgy emails or downloading dodgy software.
I’d be interested to here from other iMac uses here.
I have only had an iMac at home for personal use since 2007. ( the kids all have windoze laptops for school).
I have never had any antivirus software on the iMac.
I think so much depends on your discipline and way of working when opening links on dodgy emails or downloading dodgy software.
I’d be interested to here from other iMac uses here.
AJB Temple
Sequoia
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I've used Mac's privately for personal use (and some business), since 1998. iMacs, Mac pros, numerous laptops as well. My business used professionally networked PCs but even at work I always had a Mac as well.
Like Andy I have always been super careful what I open and am wary. Hence apart from a period of about a year when I was persuaded, by an IT unit I employed, to run anti virus software on the Mac pro I used at work, I have never run natively installed anti virus on any of my Macs.
My experience of loaded anti virus (as opposed to the several security layers we had at work before anything reached individual machines) on my multi core Mac Pro, was that it was a tedious nuisance. Slowed everything down very noticeably and was clunky. I got rid of it.
The main thing protecting Mac's in the past is that rather few people used them whereas PCs were everywhere. Therefore the criminals logically targeted PCs. I still don't run anti virus on the three Macs I use daily at home. But I try to avoid risky things. Also I prefer to use browsers with a lot of built in security (Safari has gone backwards in that regard) so currently I favour Brave (and sometimes Vivaldi) and I keep the shields up for practically every site possible.
So I would not buy or use anti virus software on a Mac but a lot depends on how you will use yours I suppose.
Like Andy I have always been super careful what I open and am wary. Hence apart from a period of about a year when I was persuaded, by an IT unit I employed, to run anti virus software on the Mac pro I used at work, I have never run natively installed anti virus on any of my Macs.
My experience of loaded anti virus (as opposed to the several security layers we had at work before anything reached individual machines) on my multi core Mac Pro, was that it was a tedious nuisance. Slowed everything down very noticeably and was clunky. I got rid of it.
The main thing protecting Mac's in the past is that rather few people used them whereas PCs were everywhere. Therefore the criminals logically targeted PCs. I still don't run anti virus on the three Macs I use daily at home. But I try to avoid risky things. Also I prefer to use browsers with a lot of built in security (Safari has gone backwards in that regard) so currently I favour Brave (and sometimes Vivaldi) and I keep the shields up for practically every site possible.
So I would not buy or use anti virus software on a Mac but a lot depends on how you will use yours I suppose.
AJB Temple":2za3dsum said:
What makes you say that ? Do you have any links to any references on the web ?
Re anti-virus stuff...I agree with what Andy and Adrian have said. I don't bother either.
Pete Maddex
Old Oak
We run anti virus software on all the macs at work.
Their are viruses etc for macs so why not be safe, just like the covid jab get one even if you think you are not going to get it.
Pete
Their are viruses etc for macs so why not be safe, just like the covid jab get one even if you think you are not going to get it.
Pete
They were maybe about 20% Mac at my last job and none of them had any AV on them. I never heard of any virus problems with them. I’ve been using Macs at home for over 25 years and never had any issues on that score. Apple are very good at issuing software updates for new threats, I even had one the other week for our ageing iMac.
I much prefer to get software on the App Store if I can, not least for safety reasons. I bought some heavily discounted image editing software on the App Store for our old iMac some years ago and was surprised to be able to download the very latest Apple Silicon version to our new iMac free.
Many of my friends running Windows machines have had them trashed by viruses in the past. Some of them still run two machines - one for internet use and another unconnected machine with personal stuff on.
I much prefer to get software on the App Store if I can, not least for safety reasons. I bought some heavily discounted image editing software on the App Store for our old iMac some years ago and was surprised to be able to download the very latest Apple Silicon version to our new iMac free.
Many of my friends running Windows machines have had them trashed by viruses in the past. Some of them still run two machines - one for internet use and another unconnected machine with personal stuff on.
AJB Temple
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Roger, you can use your favourite SE to look for Mac virus info. There are some out there, but few in the wild. Even the new M1 chip has been penetrated, "Silver Sparrow" being the well publicised one, but in practice Apple code is pretty good at identifying and disabling threats.
Re Safari - I don't have time to post links but in any case you can decide for yourself: Safari is very outdated now in terms of allowing you to block advertising, video pop-ups and especially tracking in any convenient way. Just try customising it to do what the likes of Brave and Vivaldi now do. Safari is hopeless at blocking news site video pop ups and banners, or the 3rd party ads with trackers built in. I use Brave (which does sync between machines) because it has very good anti track built in, works easily and seamlessly with Tor for privacy, and has built in ad and vid blocking (ie no bloatware to download as an add on). It can also toggle between search engines seamlessly. Much more functionality than Safari and has the adds on I want built in. Some people I know are very loyal to browser brands, and fair enough, each to their own.
Re Safari - I don't have time to post links but in any case you can decide for yourself: Safari is very outdated now in terms of allowing you to block advertising, video pop-ups and especially tracking in any convenient way. Just try customising it to do what the likes of Brave and Vivaldi now do. Safari is hopeless at blocking news site video pop ups and banners, or the 3rd party ads with trackers built in. I use Brave (which does sync between machines) because it has very good anti track built in, works easily and seamlessly with Tor for privacy, and has built in ad and vid blocking (ie no bloatware to download as an add on). It can also toggle between search engines seamlessly. Much more functionality than Safari and has the adds on I want built in. Some people I know are very loyal to browser brands, and fair enough, each to their own.
AJB Temple":61h3bgpv said:
I know that I can do that. Thing is that running anti-malware is not the panacea that many think it is. For instance, from Wiki, As of 23 February 2021, Internet security company Malwarebytes has discovered over 29,000 Macs worldwide running their anti-malware software to be infected with Silver Sparrow
AJB Temple":61h3bgpv said:
I'm aware of all of this as you've mentioned it quite a few times in the past and I agree with you. But in your post, you specifically mentioned 'a lot of built in security (Safari has gone backwards in that regard)' and I was interested to understand on what you based this statement.
I bought a new Mac recently and I just happened to click on an icon in Safari that I hadn’t noticed before. It said it had blocked something like 60 attempts to track me across websites in a fairly short period.
I suppose it depends what type of websites you visit and how often you download stuff. I worked with folks that from their comments frequently downloaded pirate copies of videos, music and books. Not too surprising if some of these downloads contain malware.
I begged the question some time ago whether anyone on here used a VPN as I thought it sounded like a good idea at the time. I think everyone answered in the negative? Is it worth doing, some are free, or is it worth paying xx a month? Just a thought.
I suppose it depends what type of websites you visit and how often you download stuff. I worked with folks that from their comments frequently downloaded pirate copies of videos, music and books. Not too surprising if some of these downloads contain malware.
I begged the question some time ago whether anyone on here used a VPN as I thought it sounded like a good idea at the time. I think everyone answered in the negative? Is it worth doing, some are free, or is it worth paying xx a month? Just a thought.
Woodster":25hdldh6 said:
I use a VPN for some things (I won't go into here) but for day to day a VPN isn't there to protect you from anything, only to hide your traceability on the web. A VPN won't stop you getting a virus or picking up malware, it's simply there to obfuscate your location.
I use a paid for VPN. PIA (Private Internet Access). I use it to enable access to some otherwise georestricted services. I switch it off when not required as it can slow some webistes down.
Last bill was for €37 for 12 months.
Last bill was for €37 for 12 months.
AJB Temple
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Some browsers (eg Brave) have firewall and VPN built in. You wont want to run VPN all the time as it can be a tad tedious. Works fine on an iPhone.
Thank you for the responses. We just do ‘normal’ stuff, - bit a browsing, some YouTube via safari. We have chrome installed but hardly ever use it (remove I think).
Very concious of downloading anything that I haven’t specifically checked out first and certainly no email links without a double check. We also use ipads a lot so desktop getting less use than it use to get, mainly photos and sketchup.
It was the latest which magazine that started me thinking again as they recommend AVG antivirus free mainly for blocking malware. Like others my experience of such software is that it slows everything thing down and is more of a pain in many respects.
Think I’ll hold off for now but keep it under review.
Very concious of downloading anything that I haven’t specifically checked out first and certainly no email links without a double check. We also use ipads a lot so desktop getting less use than it use to get, mainly photos and sketchup.
It was the latest which magazine that started me thinking again as they recommend AVG antivirus free mainly for blocking malware. Like others my experience of such software is that it slows everything thing down and is more of a pain in many respects.
Think I’ll hold off for now but keep it under review.
Woodster":2gaooext said:
What?
spb
Nordic Pine
Woodster":tmopu7u7 said:
That page is written by a company who's trying to sell you a VPN subscription. While many of those points would have been valid 20 years ago, they're at best severely overstated, mostly outdated, and generally written in a way to sound scary without being technically untrue.
That might be fine for you Roger as someone who knows what they’re talking about in relation to IT but for numpties like me they provide a jargon free reasonably unbiased opinion and I’d rather take notice of what they say than some of the technobabble out there.RogerS":3s6jcy0j said:
spb":13pzynxx said:
That’s a more verbose version of my answer.
Woodster, a VPN is simply an encrypted (IPSEC in most modern cases) tunnel between yourself and somewhere else, from the other end of which your traffic egresses to the internet.
It WILL NOT stop you getting malware, or downloading viruses, or even being targeted by hackers or other nefarious ne’er do wells. How can it? It’s just a doorway to the internet from somewhere other than where you normally would.
As I said, it’s primarily a way to protect your location from others, very little else.
Without sounding like ‘that guy’, my day job is heading up the IT networking teams for some of the UK’s largest companies, part of that being cyber security and the creation of VPN’s. I can assure you, a VPN is of very little use for ‘protecting’ your home environment.
Now if you want to watch BBC iPlayer/Sky go etc when outside of the UK, or you have a hacked firestick giving you access to free premier league football/movies and box sets and you don’t want your ISP to blacklist you then a VPN is your best buddy…
spb":3tlvjyrt said:
That link was one of dozens that said something very similar, many of them not trying to sell anything.
I prefer to do a Google rather than just take the word of SOBOTI. I’m not convinced I need one but it’s worth looking at stuff like this from time to time.
Stuart":3tlvjyrt said:
Pretty much like us really. Most of our online stuff is done on an iPad. Like you I’ll revisit this at some point.
What on earth is SOBOTI ?
I'd rather take the word of an expert like Trim than waste time wading through countless Google website results of dubious provenance. Especially if I wasn't sure or knew how to sort the wheat from the chaff.
I'd rather take the word of an expert like Trim than waste time wading through countless Google website results of dubious provenance. Especially if I wasn't sure or knew how to sort the wheat from the chaff.
I’ll have ago at SOBOTI and proffer that Mark is certainly not Old nor Odd 
Andyp":2im9wz7p said:I’ll have ago at SOBOTI and proffer that Mark is certainly not Old nor Odd
Are I get it.
So Woodster...how do you differentiate between a SOBOTI like Mark who IS an expert and a SOBOTI who writes a webpage of unknown provenance ? Ah, I see...because it's on Google and so it must be true. Wow. :eusa-doh:
Let's not get into this guys. I know what I know, and I get paid to know/deliver it. If that's enough for some then great, if it's not then fine, I'm not going to get into calling people names...
To summarise, there are MANY reasons to use a VPN, the are also very FEW reasons your average user on here (myself included) NEED a VPN, and stopping yourself being hacked (other than on untrusted Hotspots) or protecting yourself from viruses/malware are absolutely NOT reasons to use one (or more correctly, will not stop you from becoming victim of those things).
To summarise, there are MANY reasons to use a VPN, the are also very FEW reasons your average user on here (myself included) NEED a VPN, and stopping yourself being hacked (other than on untrusted Hotspots) or protecting yourself from viruses/malware are absolutely NOT reasons to use one (or more correctly, will not stop you from becoming victim of those things).