One of the original, unique selling points for the Mac was that historically there had been almost no requirement to have antivirus software installed.
Mac’s operating system (MacOS)
built to withstand the barrage of malicious
attacks that the internet would open them up to. It also helped that the
average person would choose a Windows PC over any of the other alternatives.
As both operating systems are
designed quite differently, malicious software could not target both MacOS and
Windows at the same time. So naturally, 99% of all malicious malware and ransomware attacks were
against Windows users.
Apple hardware has boomed in
popularity in the last decade, and unfortunately for the Mac, it’s impenetrable
days are long gone because of this.
The next time you hear someone speak about
how safe owning a Mac is, as was the meta argument against PC owners during the
2000s, you can now kindly educate them.
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I have tested and evaluated
some of the top antivirus software that’s available for the Mac, to help you
with your decision. Performance impaction, ease of use and interface design,
were all taken into consideration.
Norton Security Deluxe
Norton Security
Deluxe will set you back $80 a year and will allow you to install it on up
to five different devices at once. This license isn’t restricted to Macs and is
eligible to be used on Windows PCs and Android devices.
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Protection and security
Norton Security Deluxe
continuously scans your computer, and its connections, while it is running. It
also scans archived files like ZIPs and RARs. With a constant live feed to the
latest threats, due to its LiveUpdate ability, your devices should always be
protected from the most recent malicious threats.
AVG Antivirus
Although there is a free
version available, with limited capabilities, the Pro version of AVG
Antivirus will cost you roughly $60 per annum. OS X 10.8, or later, is
required.
Protection and security
In the latest annual security
test that all best antivirus software 2018 has to take part in, AVG Antivirus is one of
the only four that managed to detect and intercept 100% of the malware thrown
at it. To stay on top of the growing threats, AVG Antivirus also has
cutting-edge automatic updates.
Performance
Unfortunately, AVG Antivirus
has a much larger impact on idle and scan performance than some of the other
options available, but when you can boast about 100% security, then we feel
like that’s a decent compromise.
