Do Apple Mac's Need Anti-Virus Protection (ScanGuard)?

Do Mac computers actually need any additional anti virus protection?

I keep seeing ScanGuard as the must have, todays anti virus protection for Macs.

I have and run Onyx on a regular basis but have nothing else installed. This is the ScanGuard spiel................

http://smartwebuser.net/scanguard/lp/mac.php?voluumdata=deprecated&eda=deprecated&cep=_7RtY2notQpY6H4jChEr5s5dYEINJDVbESgF8AVuQ7kU1SFhDFEdBRwe7QWB4rMWIC9uEq6pveByrXXG2_1CpQO8sfGsUrWQQfaul_5qM1hZB-h68uPYNATPijO15OBB-85MNHWZu-Ysa18U8fUbeWSFeSzXLzDsXUP-tXRUXrWmprRMTi5R3DfvvRonKO3GKJqLf-lL75-aJubaOX7sHcmMDkdm1_C8fFDAH2gLokk&yah=scanmaccarousel1

Do Mac computers actually need any additional anti virus protection?

Click to expand...

Straight answer - NO.

What I would say you do need is:

1. "prevention" in the form of Safari Extensions called "Ghostery" and "Adblock Plus" (UBlock and 1Block seem to be popular on these Forums but I only have experience of the first two mentioned.

Ghostery prevents tracking and Adblock Plus (and others) gets rid of most ads. https://www.ghostery.com and https://adblockplus.org/category/adblock-plus-safari/

(To see other Extensions of possible interest, you can open Safari, Click on the Safari icon and choose Extensions)

2. Malwarebytes app - https://www.malwarebytes.com/mac/. This is how you go about it - download and install the 30-day free trial. After 30 days, it automatically reverts to the free version which scans on-demand; which is all you need. No need to run it in the background, no need to pay anything.

3. OnyX - which you have already.

4. DuckDuckGo which is a search engine that promises not to track your searches.

5. A VPN especially if you browse outside of your home (cafes, hotels, stations; that sort of thing).

6. Safe computing.

Ian

I don't think you will see any takers on the forum for ScanGuard or any other anti virus software from most of our members. They are actually using Windows virus definitions. Windows viruses won't affect your Mac unless you are running Windows under Bootcamp. In that case it affects the PC side not the Mac side. There are numerous threads discussing this in depth in the Security Awareness area.

Please search these forums about ScanGaurd and look at the Security sub-forum about anti-virus and other software. This issue has been discussed ad nauseam.