You've made the extremely common mistake of designating malware as some sort of individual type of threat: I've seen many topics on these forums alone where the user had as many as four AV software titles running, and yet an EtreCheck report showed their Mac loaded with adware and other garbage. Every once in a great while AV software may see that you've installed a Trojan, but they can almost never remove them. There are no viruses to detect, so what exactly is the AV software wasting your system resources looking for? They cannot stop you from installing Trojans. I didn't write that above as a joke or exaggeration. This is what makes all typical AV software 100% useless. Adware, key loggers, back doors, ransomware and other threats. You may not know you did it, but you did. Trojans require you to get onto your system. These do not exist on the Mac at this time, and haven't throughout the entirety of OS X / macOS. They need no help from the user to move from one device to another, or infect other apps it can see. And they are far from the only ones who call anything and everything a virus.

However I do recommend at a minimum to have on-demand malware and virus scanner that's up to date and run a scan periodically as part of your maintenance schedule or if you notice something suspicious. Though I personally do run a real-time AV scanner on my mac I neither recommend or dissuade other users from doing so. There are malicious microsoft macros, though they don't attack binary apps or the native OS they can dump and spam your contact lists in outlook or compromise excel and word macros.Īlso beware of browser plugins/extensions Just to name a few perils mac users should be on the lookout for: I am a firm believer in common sense don't visit sites that are loaded with malware (for example sites, spam ads duh).ĭon't open email attachments without scanning them first. reduce performance, interfere with allowed programs etc. Second you would have to determine which 3rd party products, if any, can provide greater security than whats is built into the native OS.Īnd third if any 3rd party products are effective how much overhead do they take up i.e. Here is just one list of malware, virus or otherwise bad stuff that can sneak onto your mac and reek havoc: First I guess you really have to provide a really clear agreed upon definition for virus.

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