General Security Tips for your Mac

Status
Not open for further replies.
Joined
May 10, 2011
Messages
103
Reaction score
0
Points
16
Location
Roma
Your Mac's Specs
iMac 27", MacbookPro 17", Sierra on iMac, iPad Pro, cell, iPhone 6
You might mention a certain dastardly trick that can be played on the web: looking for a particular video (about Byron) I found myself with the page of academic videos from Italian Radio that seemed appropriate. To make a long story short, I ended up committing myself to a €90 payment to something called Italia-programmi. I took my data to the internet police here in Rome and it turned out that the organization (or is it organisation in Canadian?) was well known to them. Needless to say, I never paid Italia-programmi, which will certainly be in operation under a new name at this point. My point is that there seem to be rogue sites that can blot out virtuous ones.
 
Joined
Nov 11, 2015
Messages
1
Reaction score
0
Points
1
Worst antivirus for Mac

I used VirusBarrier Plus application from Intego. I loaded that some time ago from AppleStore.

Yesterday I started this application and it found about 6000 infected files. I push the button to recover files and all my Word, Excel, Pages, Numbers files were destroyed by VirusBarrier. All the files became the files with 0 size. There is no one still alive.

I called Intego Support and they said that I should not use old application (Even their data base was uploaded by application yesterday) and apologized. They said that it is not possible to restore the files.

So my strong advice to everybody - Never use Intego products ( at least before you make backup of your computer).

My strong advice to Apple never allow them to put their products in AppStore .
 

chscag

Well-known member
Staff member
Admin
Joined
Jan 23, 2008
Messages
65,248
Reaction score
1,833
Points
113
Location
Keller, Texas
Your Mac's Specs
2017 27" iMac, 10.5" iPad Pro, iPhone 8, iPhone 11, iPhone 12 Mini, Numerous iPods, Monterey
And our advice to you is get rid of any and all anti virus software as it is not needed. And start making backups.
 
Joined
Sep 16, 2015
Messages
9
Reaction score
0
Points
1
Um... With all due respect, in my opinion, I'd say it's a little more complex then that. "Riding bareback" for malware protection on the Mac is akin to playing Russian roulette with a 600 chambered cylinder on a revolver. Sure you have less of a chance of being infected but you still can be infected. As for myself, I use one of the free malware checkers currently available. I did some research using these 2 references online:

https://www.av-test.org/en/news/news-single-view/mac-os-x-under-attack-10-security-packages-put-to-the-test/
The best Mac antivirus software in 2023

From these sites I'd say Bitdefender is the best, but you do have to pay for it. If you are worried about a system hit on performance this one would be the best choice. However if you happen to own a faster and/or newer Mac and don't want to pay a yearly fee on the off chance you might get infected, I'd say go with either Avira or Avast. They're both free and their system performance impact is fairly minimal.

Sure backups are a prerequisite for sensible computing but an ounce of prevention goes a long way in bypassing hours of waiting for your data to be reloaded from said backup let alone the possible loss of data due to the gap in time from your last backup.


Note: One caveat... If you do decide to load one of these programs, I suggest after you do so, when you perform any system updates that require a reboot, to disable real-time protection until after the reboot. I corrupted the malware program I was using by forgetting to do so. Fortunately all I had to do was uninstall and reinstall it.


Update: As of 12/17/2015 AV-TEST just released an updated report for Mac malware apps:

https://www.av-test.org/en/news/news-single-view/more-security-for-mac-os-x-13-security-packages-put-to-the-test/

Per this report it appears that a new entry, Sophos, holds a slight advantage over Avira as far as the system penalty is concerned. Also it now appears that Avast has dropped to dead last in the system penalty tests. All three of the afore mentioned apps are free. Symantec now joins Bitdefender as the least intrusive for a system penalty for paid Mac malware apps. It's interesting to note that Symantec and Bitdefender have a 10% system hit, Sophos has a 20% penalty, Avira has a 40% penalty, and Avast is close to 180%. All five of the apps achieved a 100% malware detection rate. So it now appears that Symantec and Bitdefender are the best paid malware detection apps and Sophos and Avira are the best free ones. Unfortunately I'd say Avast is no longer a contender because of their new system penalty rating.
 
Last edited:
Joined
Nov 19, 2006
Messages
1,774
Reaction score
81
Points
48
Location
York, UK
Your Mac's Specs
iMac: 5K 27” (2020), 3.3 GHz, 32Gb RAM. iPad2, iPad mini4, iPhone 13 Mini, Apple Watch SE
Um... With all due respect, in my opinion, I'd say it's a little more complex then that. "Riding bareback" for malware protection on the Mac is akin to playing Russian roulette with a 600 chambered cylinder on a revolver. Sure you have less of a chance of being infected but you still can be infected. As for myself, I use one of the free malware checkers currently available. I did some research using these 2 references online:

https://www.av-test.org/en/news/news-single-view/more-security-for-mac-os-x-13-security-packages-put-to-the-test/
The best Mac antivirus software in 2023

From these sites I'd say Bitdefender is the best, but you do have to pay for it. If you are worried about a system hit on performance this one would be the best choice. However if you happen to own a faster and/or newer Mac and don't want to pay a yearly fee on the off chance you might get infected, I'd say go with either Avira or Avast. They're both free and their system performance impact is fairly minimal.

Sure backups are a prerequisite for sensible computing but an ounce of prevention goes a long way in bypassing hours of waiting for your data to be reloaded from said backup let alone the possible loss of data due to the gap in time from your last backup.

Note: One caveat... If you do decide to load one of these programs, I suggest after you do so, when you perform any system updates that require a reboot, to disable real-time protection until after the reboot. I corrupted the malware program I was using by forgetting to do so. Fortunately all I had to do was uninstall and reinstall it.

Welcome to the world of Windows. Had you not realised that this is a mac site? Yes it's like playing Russian Roulette but you missed one important piece of information..."with an empty cylinder"! Oh and there is a reason that Avira and Avast have minimal impact (disputed by some). It's because they don't actually do anything useful on mac in regard to virus protection.
 
Joined
Feb 14, 2004
Messages
4,781
Reaction score
166
Points
63
Location
Groves, Texas
Seeing as there are no actual virii for the Macintosh OS in the wild, exactly what are these antivirus programs looking for?
Notice I did not say malware. Whole other problem and well taken care of by MalwareBytes, among others.
I can understand not wanting to spread Windows viruses to Windows users, but if you don't exchange files with Windows users, why use antivirus which pretty much only looks for known Windows virii? (is that how you spell the plural of virus?)
If you feel you really need to run an antivirus, fine. It's your computer. We'll be here when you come back with the "My computer is running really slow/bad" posts.
 
Joined
Sep 16, 2015
Messages
9
Reaction score
0
Points
1
Welcome to the world of Windows. Had you not realised that this is a mac site? Yes it's like playing Russian Roulette but you missed one important piece of information..."with an empty cylinder"! Oh and there is a reason that Avira and Avast have minimal impact (disputed by some). It's because they don't actually do anything useful on mac in regard to virus protection.

I apologize, I thought this was a helpful "Mac" site. I believe you missed one important bit of information... Instead of a 1 in 6 chance of blowing your brains out, you have a 1 in 600 chance and yes the odds are for illustrative purposes only. The point is that a Mac is a heck of a lot less likely of becoming infected than Windows. However once it is infected, you have something like what happen to AlexMM transpire. I say it's irresponsible to make unsubstantiated opinionated claims and to stick ones head in the sand.

It is interesting to note that I wanted to test one of OS X's built in malware protections, XProtect, and ran across a thread from the Apple Support Communities https://discussions.apple.com/thread/5360983?start=0&tstart=0. It was suggested that a person could go to http://www.eicar.org/download/eicar.com to download a test malware file and try to open it to see what XProtect would do. When I clicked on the link to download it the "free" malware detection app I use flagged it and snagged it before I could even try to open it! The argument can be made as to why someone should pay a yearly fee for malware protection. Although at $30 a year for Bitdefender, I'd say it's a bargain. But even so what argument can be made against installing a free malware protection app? The system penalty? As I've posted previously, there are a couple of free malware apps that are nearly as ubiquitous as the paid ones. In fact I don't even notice a system hit with the free malware app I use.

I've been using and supporting the Macintosh since 1984. However I started off by using CPM based systems and then MS-DOS systems. That's why I was drawn to the Mac. It used a fresh take on the user interface. When Microsoft came out with Windows it felt adulterated. I always was annoyed when I had to use it because it was always crashing due to one thing or another like malware. Soon my annoyance turned into pure displeasure when I came across systems that were totally inoperable because of malware. Trying to recover and clean out someones system is a huge pain in the @ss and very time consuming. That is why I use a free malware protection app so that at least I have something in place to help thwart a very real possible future infection by malware. If a person wants to throw caution to the wind and go unprotected, so be it. But for them to encourage others, especially the uninitiated, to do likewise is disrespectful and rude.
 
Last edited:

chscag

Well-known member
Staff member
Admin
Joined
Jan 23, 2008
Messages
65,248
Reaction score
1,833
Points
113
Location
Keller, Texas
Your Mac's Specs
2017 27" iMac, 10.5" iPad Pro, iPhone 8, iPhone 11, iPhone 12 Mini, Numerous iPods, Monterey
If a person wants to throw caution to the wind and go unprotected, so be it. But for them to encourage others, especially the uninitiated, to do likewise is disrespectful and rude.

We've been over this topic many times. The bottom line is that the use of AV software is a personal choice. General advice in this forum and the "other" forum which you're a member of is the same: AV software is not needed. Protection against malware is different and our recommendation has always been that it should be used.
 
Joined
Jan 18, 2016
Messages
15
Reaction score
1
Points
3
Location
Janesville, WI
Your Mac's Specs
MacBook Pro Early 2011, 15", Sierra 10.12
I really appreciate all the advice here. Security is so important, I like to stay informed about this too, because I've also read that the Mac is not immune, so it's good to let everyone know and remind them. Thanks for taking the time to write all that. :)

Ditto!!
 
Joined
Aug 7, 2014
Messages
2
Reaction score
0
Points
1
THE ANTI-VIRUS QUESTION
Still. looking at the above on anti-virus programs, just for that extra measure of safety, Ive been using Intego; ot seems to be useful, and has a good "Security Blog"

I have thought a lot about this, and would really like feedback from others here.

Thanks so much, graphicg
 
Joined
Jan 20, 2012
Messages
5,052
Reaction score
412
Points
83
Location
North Carolina
Your Mac's Specs
Air M2 ('22) OS 14.3; M3 iMac ('23) OS 14.3; iPad Pro; iPhone 14

Now, you just responded to and presumably agreed w/ a 2-year old post - do you have a question or a concern - simply wondering? Dave :)
 
Joined
Jan 20, 2012
Messages
5,052
Reaction score
412
Points
83
Location
North Carolina
Your Mac's Specs
Air M2 ('22) OS 14.3; M3 iMac ('23) OS 14.3; iPad Pro; iPhone 14
THE ANTI-VIRUS QUESTION
Still. looking at the above on anti-virus programs, just for that extra measure of safety, Ive been using Intego; ot seems to be useful, and has a good "Security Blog"

I have thought a lot about this, and would really like feedback from others here.

Hello and welcome to the forum! :) I just visited the Intego Website and perused their Mac software offerings (shown in image below) - not sure 'what' of their product(s) you are using, but I'm assuming the AV app - correct?

Now, if you have read this entire thread carefully (and plenty of others in this forum on whether to use AV software), then the summary opinion is that AV programs (i.e. anti-virus and not other types of malware, especially browser related - IMPORTANT distinction) are not needed on a computer w/ Mac OS X - there are no viruses 'in the wild' that can infect this operating system - your AV software is simply checking for Windows viruses (which could be passed on to your PC using friends, so maybe an issue?), but using your hardware resources and possibly causing conflicts, not an uncommon complaint when members come here asking for help w/ AV software installed.

SO, before adding more to this post on what you should be doing on your Apple machine, please tell us which Intego products you are using and what your concerns may be? You may have 'thought a lot about this,' but likely made the wrong decision in opting to use AV software - Dave
.
Screen Shot 2016-02-11 at 5.56.11 PM.png
 
Status
Not open for further replies.

Shop Amazon


Shop for your Apple, Mac, iPhone and other computer products on Amazon.
We are a participant in the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program, an affiliate program designed to provide a means for us to earn fees by linking to Amazon and affiliated sites.
Top