do i need to buy antivirus software for my mac

Do I Need To Buy Antivirus Software For My Mac Owners First

While some software pirates just want to keep valid development firms from making profits that can be rolled back into research and development, others like to load those apps with a little extra malware.

The other reason The miseries of the tools that allegedly fix those problems but cause even new PCs to run slowly and crash more often.

Do I Need To Buy Antivirus Software For My Mac Owners First

When new Mac owners first set up their new machines, one question they may have is whether or not theyre taking a risk by not installing that same genre of application on their Macs.

That includes the early days of Mac when the operating system wasnt Unix-based with all of its built-in security features.

Theyre the functions that are constantly monitoring whats going on behind the scenes on your Mac to keep you safe.

First, Ill talk about Apples safety nets, then other precautions that can help keep your Mac safe with minimal fuss.

XProtect runs constantly in the background on OS X and macOS machines.

Its installed by default, runs without user intervention, and is even updated automatically.

Since it is part of the operating system, its also very fast and doesnt cause the usual slowdowns associated with dedicated antivirusmalware apps.

If it catches a malicious file, youll be notified immediately, usually with a message stating that the file may damage your computer, the type of malware or virus it caught, and a warning to move the file to Trash immediately (see image below).

Have you ever downloaded an app from somewhere and seen a message that said something like App name cant be opened because it was not downloaded from the Mac App Store or App name cant be opened because it is from an unknown developer Thats Gatekeeper at work.

This is done by launching System Preferences Security Privacy General, and then selecting one of the available choices.

If you like living on the edge of danger, you can set it up to allow downloads from Anywhere this is not recommended, as theres a higher probability of downloading an app with a malicious payload (see image below).

This is the default setting and allows Mac App Store apps and those from developers that have used digital signing on their apps to be immediately downloaded and installed.

If the setting is left at Mac App Store, any file downloaded from another site like a trusted developers website will not be allowed to install on the Mac.

You may get the option to still install it, but if the dialog that appears doesnt give you that option, you can right-click it and select Open from the contextual menu to launch it.

Secure IMAP (for email) wants to have TCP port 993 open, and so on.

To turn it on, just go to System Preferences Security Privacy Firewall, and if the firewall is turned off, click the lock in the lower left corner of the window and enter your administrative name and password, then click the Turn Firewall On button (see image below): Other ports can be opened or individual applications allowed to work with specific ports by clicking on the Firewall Options button.

Sadly, many people still forgo updating their operating system or apps to the latest and greatest versions.

If your apps provide a way to automatically download and install updates, enable that process.

When those annoyingly slow Microsoft Office updates appear, run them.

When you read on the Rocket Yard that a new version of macOS (or an update to an earlier version of macOS X) appears, run it.

Im talking about folks who dont want to spend money on apps, so they go to freeware or torrent sites where they can get cracked versions of apps free.

If a free version of an app seems too good to be true, it probably is.