More general advice can be found in our Mac security tips and those who have been hit by a malware attack should try how to remove a virus from a Mac. They are more difficult to exploit than Windows PCs, but Macs are not unhackable. Sandboxing is like having a series of fire doors: even if malware gains access to your Mac, it is unable to spread to other areas of the machine. As a Unix-based operating system macOS is sandboxed.

On the technical side, macOS is a Unix-based operating system. Macs are generally more secure than their Windows brethren for two reasons. As a result, cyber security is something you can't afford to ignore, and good antivirus is a very good place to start if you want to stay safe.

The bad guys, then, are still very much targeting Mac users and they're getting smarter and greedier. Not long ago, the Silver Sparrow malware was detected on Macs powered by the latest M1 processor and infected hundreds of thousands of Macs in total.

We'd argue that they are wrong – or overconfident, at the very least. Plenty of Mac aficionados will tell you that Apple computers are inherently secure and don't require protection. Our top contenders dominate by posting perfect (or virtually near perfect) scores from security research labs, passing our own malware detection tests with flying colors, offering well-designed interfaces, and even throwing in extra features like a firewall or password manager.įor some great discounts and deals see our best Mac antivirus deals round up. However, you will find several other recommendations below that may suit you better, depending upon the type and number of devices that need protection and also how much you want to pay. It'll catch malware that's still spreading or in circulation block ransomware protect older systems with out-of-date software from security vulnerabilities prevent your Mac from acting as a carrier for malware aimed at other operating systems and keep infected files off of any virtual machines you're running.Īs to the question of which antivirus software you should choose for your Mac, our current top pick is Intego Mac Internet Security. Accordingly, good antivirus software will protect your Mac on all of these fronts.

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