XProtect is regularly updated by Apple, and it updates in the background, so you should always be protected. Apple has a list of malicious applications that it checks against when you open downloaded applications. The Mac’s malware scanning tool, XProtect, works invisibly and automatically in the background and requires no user configuration. In this section we will look at the inbuilt protections in macOS and will establish whether they are enough, or if you should also install antivirus software on your Mac. Macs are generally safer than PCs, but with the threat to the Mac growing due to the increasing popularity of the platform (both with consumers and with those who wish to target Mac users) Apple has had to build in protections to macOS and the Mac hardware itself. Read on to find out more about how Apple’s security measures work–and why they may not be enough to keep your Mac secure. For more tips to keep your Mac secure from any potential malware read: How to keep your Mac secure. You’ll find Intego at the top of our round-up of the best antivirus for Mac, among other free and paid for antivirus apps that might give you some peace of mind, including McAfee and Norton. For that reason we advise that for the best protection from threats it’s best to add a dedicated Mac security suite such as Intego Mac Internet Security. However, as good as these protections are, there have been occasions when malware has gotten on to Macs, and times when Apple hasn’t responded as quickly to a threat as Mac users might hope. These features and other protections builds into macOS (which we will discuss in more detail below) mean it’s not an essential requirement to install antivirus software on your Mac. Gatekeeper and Xprotect are two elements of Apple’s security features in macOS Thanks to these features, before you can install an app, your Mac will check it against a list of malware, and even if there is no reason for concern it will not make it easy for you to open an application from a developer that it hasn’t approved. Additionally, Apple does a pretty good job of keeping on top of vulnerabilities and exploits and the updates to the macOS that will protect your Mac will be pushed out over auto-update very quickly. As you can see, Apple goes to great lengths to protect you from malware by making it almost impossible for you to download it in the first place, let alone install it. While Gatekeeper checks that any app you attempt to open or install has come from a certified developer. They include Gatekeeper, which blocks software that hasn’t been digitally approved by Apple from running on your Mac without your agreement, and XProtect, which is Apple’s own antivirus built in to macOS.Īpple’s anti-malware protection, known as XProtect, is built into into macOS and inspects every app for malware. These built-in security features make attacking a Mac particularly challenging. There are measures put in place by Apple at the operating system level that should protect Mac users from the worst malware threats. So should Mac users start panicking now? There is a risk posed by Mac malware, but it is not necessarily the case that Macs need antivirus software. iOS has established a dramatically higher bar for customer protection. When the judge asked about the fact that Mac users can purchase and download software from various places on the Mac, rather than being limited to the Mac App Store, Federighi said: “Yeah, it’s certainly how we’ve done it on the Mac and it’s regularly exploited on the Mac. He revealed that 130 different cases of Mac malware have affected over 300,000 Macs since May 2020 and admitted that even members of his family had got malware on their Macs. But he didn’t hold much back with regards to the malware situation on the Mac. Even Apple’s head of software engineering Craig Federighi acknowledged in May 2021 (at the Apple vs Epic trial) that Mac malware was a problem, stating: “Today, we have a level of malware on the Mac that we don’t find acceptable.”įederighi made the 2021 claim mainly to back up the need for an iOS App Store to protect iPhone and iPad users from malware on those devices. But before you breathe a sign of relief, Malwarebytes stated that the worst kind of malware, namely “backdoors, data stealers, and cryptocurrency stealers/miners, increased by more than 61 percent” in 2020.Īnother reason for the malware decline in 2020 was the pandemic, and, as restrictions were lifted, in 2021 malware saw a resurgence, with the number of Mac detections increasing more than 200 percent year-on-year in 2021, to 164 million, an increase of 35 percent on pre-pandemic 2019. Then in its State of Malware report in 2020, Malwarebytes found that the amount of malware detected on macOS actually decreased by 38 percent.
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