Checking your Mac for viruses. OS X does a pretty good job of stopping viruses and malware from attacking your computer. But there are steps you can take to further protect yourself.
- Virus Protection For Mac Os
- Apple Antivirus Software
- Virus Protection For Macbook
- Virus Protection For Mac Air
We design Mac hardware and software with advanced technologies that work together to run apps more securely, protect your data, and help keep you safe on the web. And with macOS Catalina available as a free upgrade, it’s easy to get the most secure version of macOS for your Mac.*
Apple T2 chip.
The next generation of security.
The Apple T2 Security Chip — included with many newer Mac models — keeps your Mac safer than ever. The Secure Enclave coprocessor in the Apple T2 chip provides the foundation for Touch ID, secure boot, and encrypted storage capabilities. Touch ID gives you a seamless way to use your fingerprint to unlock your Mac, fill passwords in Safari, and make purchases with Apple Pay. Secure boot helps ensure that you are running trusted operating system software from Apple, while the Apple T2 chip automatically encrypts the data on your Mac. So you can be confident knowing that security has been designed right into the architecture of your Mac, from the ground up.
Apple helps you keep your Mac secure with software updates.
The best way to keep your Mac secure is to run the latest software. When new updates are available, macOS sends you a notification — or you can opt in to have updates installed automatically when your Mac is not in use. macOS checks for new updates every day, so it’s easy to always have the latest and safest version.
Protection starts at the core.
The technically sophisticated runtime protections in macOS work at the very core of your Mac to keep your system safe from malware. This starts with industry-standard antivirus software built in to block and remove malware. Technologies like XD (execute disable), ASLR (address space layout randomization), and SIP (system integrity protection) make it difficult for malware to do harm, and they ensure that processes with root permission cannot change critical system files.
Download apps safely from the Mac App Store. And the internet.
Now apps from both the App Store and the internet can be installed worry-free. App Review makes sure each app in the Store is reviewed before it’s accepted. And Gatekeeper on your Mac ensures that all apps from the internet have already been checked by Apple for known malicious code — before you run them the first time. If there’s ever a problem with an app, Apple can quickly stop new installations and even block the app from launching again.
Stay in control of what data apps can access.
Apps need your permission to access files in your Documents, Downloads, and Desktop folders as well as in iCloud Drive and external volumes. And you’ll be prompted before any app can access the camera or mic, capture keyboard activity, or take a photo or video of your screen.
FileVault 2 encrypts your data.
With FileVault 2, your data is safe and secure — even if your Mac falls into the wrong hands. FileVault 2 encrypts the entire drive on your Mac, protecting your data with XTS-AES 128 encryption. And on Mac systems with an Apple T2 Security Chip, FileVault 2 keys are created and protected by the Secure Enclave for even more security.
Designed to protect your privacy.
The most secure browser for your Mac is the one that comes with your Mac. Built-in privacy features in Safari, like Intelligent Tracking Prevention, help keep your browsing your business. Automatic strong passwords make it easy to create and use unique passwords for all the sites you visit. And iCloud Keychain syncs those passwords securely across all your devices, so you don’t have to remember them. You can also easily find and upgrade any weak passwords you’ve previously used (and reused and reused and reused).
Automatic protections from harmful sites.
Safari also helps safeguard you against fraudulent websites and those that harbor malware — before you visit them. If a website seems suspicious, Safari prevents it from loading and notifies you. And when connecting to unencrypted sites, Safari will warn you. So everything you need to browse without worry is right at your fingertips.
Find your missing Mac with Find My.
The new Find My app combines Find My iPhone and Find My Friends into a single, easy-to-use app on Mac, iPad, and iPhone. Find My can help you locate a missing Mac — even if it’s offline or sleeping — by sending out Bluetooth signals that can be detected by nearby Apple devices in use. These devices then relay the detected location of your Mac to iCloud so you can locate it in the Find My app. It’s all anonymous and encrypted end-to-end so no one — including Apple — knows the identity of any reporting device or the location of your Mac. And it all happens silently using tiny bits of data that piggyback on existing network traffic. So there’s no need to worry about your battery life, your data usage, or your privacy being compromised.
Keep your Mac safe.
Even if it’s in the wrong hands.
All Mac models with the Apple T2 Security Chip now support Activation Lock — just like your iPhone or iPad. So if your Mac is ever misplaced or lost, the only person who can erase and reactivate it is you.
iCloud Security
As we talked about in last week’s Working Mac, you may have been led to believe that you don’t have to worry about computer viruses on your Mac. And, to some extent, there’s truth to that. While your Mac can definitely be infected with malware, Apple’s built-in malware detection and file quarantine capabilities are meant to make it less likely that you’ll download and run malicious software.
Apple introduced malware detection to the Mac OS with Snow Leopard (Mac OS 10.6). This system consists of the quarantine of any app downloaded from the Internet, the use of Code Signing certificates to verify that an app is coming from a legit source, and regular security updates that include databases of known malware targeting the Mac OS.
Because of this system, called File Quarantine and occasionally referred to as XProtect:
Apps in quarantine display a dialog window reminding you where the app came from and asking whether or not you’re sure you want to open it.
Apps with no code signing certificate, depending on your Gatekeeper settings, may display a message saying the app can’t be opened because of your settings. (For software you know is good you can bypass this by control-clicking the app and selecting Open from the resulting contextual menu.)
Apps that are known malware cannot be opened at all. You’ll be met with a message offering the option to toss the app in the trash.
And this is why Macs remain mostly virus and malware free.
Virus Protection For Mac Os
To make sure your Mac malware database is always up to date you’ll want to verify that your Mac always automatically installs security updates and related system data files.
To do this:
- Open System Preferences
- Open the App Store preference
- Make sure that Automatically check for updates and Install system data files and security updates are checked.
This should keep your Mac free from most malicious software, although it’s important to note that it does not make it impossible for malicious software to be installed on your Mac. There is no software that’s able to catch everything. If new malware is released today and you download and run it today you will have done so before Apple’s databases could have been updated. So it’s always best to be wise when downloading software from unknown sources.
While it’s unlikely that your Mac will run any malware, there is possibly a more pernicious issue: You Mac could become the Typhoid Mary Windows viruses, which is to say, you could be harboring viruses on your Mac that won’t effect you, but can be problems for Windows users.
Think I’m joking? Have a look at this screenshot, taken from my Mac during the course of writing this column:
That, my friends, is a list of 30 potentially bad things that...you guessed it, were found on my Mac while I was running a test virus scan, one of which is a Windows virus. And, nope, I did not plan this, even though I did plan to write about this problem.
So, how do you keep your Mac from relaying Windows viruses to Windows users?
ClamXav.
Why ClamXav? Because it has one job and it does it very well. It’s not too intrusive. It doesn’t try to do too much. If you’re using Apple’s Server app to host your email, it’s what Apple uses to scan incoming mail for viruses.
ClamXav is, like AdWare Medic, donationware and it is fantastic. You’ll find it at the Mac App Store or you can download it directly from the ClamXav Website, where you can also make a donation.
Once you’ve downloaded and opened the app you’ll want to set the app’s preferences, as the default behavior is to scan for viruses but not delete or quarantine them. ClamXav offers five configuration options:
Apple Antivirus Software
- General: For setting up alerts and whether or not to scan for malware and phishing in your email messages (which is where the app found infected files on my Mac)
- Quarantine: For defining where you want to quarantine malicious files
- Exclude Files: To specify file types you don’t want scanned
- Log Files: For setting whether or not you want log files stored and for viewing them
- Schedule: For defining when you want the latest virus definitions downloaded and when you want scheduled scans to take place
Virus Protection For Macbook
Once you’ve finished your setup, click the Start Scan button and go grab some milk and cookies. Scanning may take awhile, but when it’s done you’ll know for sure your Mac is clean.