Virus Detection Mac

1. Best Virus Detection For Mac
2. Best Antivirus Macbook
3. Best Mac Antivirus And Malware
4. Os X Antivirus

There are many antivirus and antimalware reviews for Macs on the Internet. They do a good job comparing various aspects of antimalware software, such as price, impact on the performance of the computer, ease of use, detection ratings according to respectable AV test labs.

However, almost none of the reviewers made an effort to infect their Macs with malware and test antiviruses on the real devices.

I went the same route initially when I wrote What to Look for In Antivirus Software post. Not because I was lazy, but because I didn't know where to find real viruses for a Mac.

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But as we know, 'Who seeks shall find.'

I was finally able to find more than 100 Mac-specific malware samples, and I spent a week testing 13 malware detection software.

I have to admit that the results surprised me a little. But now, armed with the real data, I can confidently recommend best malware detection app for Mac.

After all, it does not matter how much does AV cost and how easy it is to use if it does not catch 100% of malicious programs.

Personally, I wouldn't want to spend a single penny on a program that finds only 90% of threats, because even a single undetected virus can ruin my Mac.

It's like a cop wearing a bulletproof vest which only protects from certain types of bullets. If I were a cop I wouldn't want to have the second best vest.

Same with antimalware. It's the only kind of app where I don't want a hacked or free version. I want a legally purchased, fully supported software with regular updates. With a hacked software updates are not available and very soon the AV will be outdated and pretty much useless.

Anyway, here is a table with my top picks followed by the test description and results:

Best Malware Detection Software for Mac

I Injected my Mac With 117 Malware Samples

The list of actual active viruses and how tested AVs performed can be found in Appendix A. This list is pretty comprehensive. It includes:

• 27 Adware and PUP (potentially unwanted programs)
• 54 backdoors
• 7 ransomware
• 6 keyloggers
• 6 bitcoin stealers and crypto miners
• 5 worms
• 2 rootkits
• 3 trojan viruses

Each column in the table has the name of the AV tested. If AV failed to identify and disinfect the malware, I would put ‘x' in the corresponding cell.

The best antimalware is supposed to have no ‘x' in the table, and there was only one AV that accomplished the goal.

Testing Procedure

In order to create a repeatable environment for the test where all conditions are the same except the antimalware installed, I used my MacBook Pro 13″ with macOS Catalina.

First, I wiped out the disk and installed a fresh new OS.

Then I took a backup of the disk.

The following steps I repeated more than 13 times (I had to rerun several tests to make sure everything was right):

1. Copy malware folder from a thumb drive to the Downloads folder on my Mac
2. Install an antivirus
3. Scan the Downloads folder if the AV allowed selecting an individual folder, or ran the Full Scan.
4. Repeat scans until the results came back clean (according to the AV)
5. Save the results

In the end, I compared the results (see Appendix A).

As you understand, it was a lot of work. Samsung galaxy pictures to mac.

I spent exactly a week running tests each night after work, but now I have the best data you could possibly find.

High-level Results

Here are the initial results aggregated by each AV. As you can see, the only AV that deleted 100% of malware was VIPRE Advanced Security.

One program that most AV products did not identify was MacKeeper. Some programs define it as a PUP (Potentially Unwanted Program), but I happened to disagree with this. You can read my post about MacKeeper here, where I explained my point in great detail.

After some consideration, I decided to exclude MacKeeper from the list. After this adjustment the results would be as follows:

Best Virus Detection For Mac

Diskwarrior 5 1 – popular and powerful disk utility trailers. So, now we have three solutions with a malware detection rate of 100% for Mac (all US-based companies):

Testing 13 AVs

Here I want to quickly describe my impressions from each antivirus I tested (even the one not included in the final list):

Airo AV

One of the most frustrating interfaces I have seen. On the one hand, the simple interface they come with may be appealing to non-technical people who just want to set and forget.

But on the other hand, it took me a lot of time to make sure that I ran the scan against the folder where I kept all my malware.

And since I was not sure that Airo picked up the correct folder, I ran the scan multiple times. Still, it missed 10 malicious programs.

Details:

• Company founded in 2017 in Israel.
• 1-year price: $119.98 (first year $49.99) for one Mac. Additional pricing available for two years or monthly.

Avast Free Antivirus for Mac

Avast and Malwarebytes are the only truly free AV products. I wrote a detailed post about Avast. In my test, it missed only one sample.

So, if you are looking for a free AV, Avast could be your choice. However, keep in mind that the company was known for spying after its customers, so be aware.

Details:

• Avast was founded in 1988 in Prague, Czech Republic.
• 1-year price for Premium: $69.99 for one Mac or $89.99 for 10 devices (Mac, PC, Android, iOS).

AVG Antivirus

AVG was acquired by Avast, and I suspect that both have the same engine under the hood. So it is not surprising that both have similar results in testing.

I actually liked AVG more than Avast, it was straightforward to use, and the interface is very clean.

Details: https://zcjnd.over-blog.com/2020/12/install-el-capitan-on-unsupported-mac.html.

• AVG was founded in 1992 in Prague, Czech Republic.
• 1-year price for AVG Ultimate: $79.99 for 10 devices (Mac, PC, Android, iOS) – $10 cheaper than Avast.

Bitdefender Antivirus for Mac

Honestly, I was not impressed with Bitdefender.

Pros:

• One of the cheapest AV products.

Cons:

• it missed 6 samples out of 117
• it took a while to set it up
• the interface was average and not very easy to use

Best Antivirus Macbook

Details:

• Bitdefender was founded in 2001, with headquarters in Bucharest, Romania.
• 1 year price: $39.99 (first year $19.99) for one Mac or $59.99 (first year $29.99) for 3 Macs. Additional pricing available for 2 and 3 years.

ClamXAV

One of the simplest user interfaces (one might say not polished). It did a very good job finding viruses (missed only 2).

However, once the malware detected, it depends on the user to take action: I had to delete items manually. Unfortunately, since there was no bulk delete option, I had to delete items one by one (all 100+ of them).

Details:

• The ClamXAV engine is based on free software Clam AV. The same engine was used by macOS.
• 1-year price: $29.99 for three Macs or $49.95 for 9 Macs. Student discounts are available.

ESET Cyber Security

This was the biggest surprise for me. I know Nod32 for a long time since my Windows days. In my test, the program performed extremely poorly (missed 20 samples), and I don't know why.

I ran the tests multiple times to make sure that I didn't miss anything. It is entirely possible that I was doing something wrong, and there is a right way to use the product.

However, most people using the product are less technical than I am (I am a software developer, after all).

And if it takes me a while to learn how to use the product, what are the chances that the regular guy or gal can handle it better and won't be infected?

Details:

• The company was founded in 1987 in Bratislava, Slovakia.
• 1-year price: $39.99 for one Mac

F-Secure

Best Mac Antivirus And Malware

Another poor performing product. F-Secure was so eager to find something on my Mac that it started the scan even before the installation completed. I saw it found a lot of malware; however, I was not able to figure out how to make F-Secure to delete them.

All I could see is No Action as a remedy. In the end, the product displayed the worst results of all tested apps: it missed a whopping 26 samples.

Details:

• F-Secure was founded in 1988, with headquarters in Helsinki, Finland.
• 1-year price: $89.99 for three devices. Other plans are available.

Intego Mac Internet Security X9

This was one of three products that cleared 100% of malware (excluding Mac Keeper). The interface could be simpler, but the end result is good enough.

Details: Divx codec.

• Founded in 1997, with headquarters in Seattle, United States.
• 1-year price: $49.99 (first year $39.99) for one Mac. Plans available for 3 and 5 devices (Mac and PC).

Kaspersky Internet Security

Another well known and pretty old stable AV product. However, it didn't do well in my test: Kaspersky missed 7 samples, and this disqualified the product from my recommended list.

Details:

• Kaspersky was founded in 1997 in Moscow, Russia.
• 1-year price: $39.99 (first year $29.99) for one Mac or $35.99 for 3 Macs.

Malwarebytes

One of two free AV products. Noticed that the results of Malwarebytes are not in the table?

It's because Malwarebytes does not have Full Scan capability. All it does a Quick Scan (very quick indeed), but I couldn't point it to scan the folder with all malware samples.

Malwarebytes Premium will trigger when you open a file with a virus, but I don't think that the free version does it too.

Details:

• Founded in 2004 in Chicago, United States.
• 1-year price: $39.99 for one device (Mac, PC, iOS, Android) or $59.99 for 3 devices.

Norton 360 Deluxe

On the one hand, Norton took longer than any other product to install, but the result was pretty good: it detected 100% malware in adjusted test.

I have to admit that I have a soft spot for Norton products since I've been using them for more than 20 years, and I generally trust the company.

I rated the AV as the best for the following reasons:

• Norton protects all types of devices: Macs, PCs, Android and iOS
• It is the best deal for 5 devices (and I to have 5 Macs)
• It's been in the business longer than any other company
• Besides AV, Norton 360 is offering cloud backup to protect from ransomware.
• Additional services: Secure VPN, Cleaner, Credit Monitoring, Identity Theft Protection, etc.

Details:

• Company (Symantec) was founded in 1982 in California, United States.
• 1-year price: $99.99 (first year $49.99) for five devices (Mac, PC, iOS, Android).

Trend Micro

Another solid AV product. It only missed one sample.

Details:

• Founded in 1988 in Los Angeles, United States.
• 1-year price: $39.95 (first year $29.95) for one Mac.

VIPRE Advanced Security

Os X Antivirus

Another US-based company. This one came as a surprise for me. It was the only AV product that cleaned all malware and the only one that hit 100% in both adjusted and non-adjusted results.

The product was very easy to use. The interface is straightforward, and it didn't require any learning.

Details:

• Founded in 1994, with headquarters in Florida, United States.
• 1 year price: $54.99 (first year $43.99) for one Mac or PC or $64.99 (first year $51.99) for 3 Macs or PCs.

Appendix A

Following is a table with results of the test. Symbol ‘x' in each cell indicates the instance when the program failed to detect certain malware. Less ‘x'es is better.

VIPRE Advanced Security is the only solution that does not have a single ‘x' in its column because it detected and removed all malware in the test.