Do not install any third-party antivirus software. It's unnecessary and is itself a massive security risk. You have to literally override the built-in protections in order to allow the antivirus application to scan the other applications and files.
This. And if you really want to install something, I recommend a good adblocker (ads are sometimes a vector for malware distribution)
Even on the windows side you are better off with the 1st party defender features these days.
Enterprise use 3rd party AV for central orchestration and control. Theres no reason for this in consumer land.
The threat detection isn't meaningfully better across any of them (aside from some being "astonishingly bad") despite what vendors claim.
The best people to know how to protect your OS are the people that made it.
No
Ok i'll answer the question asked first. if i absolutely had to put a consumer endpoint protection on one of my macs. i'd probably do clamxav again. that said.
after 15 yrs in enterprise apple device management, i still reccomend a solid remote backup solution at the consumer level instead. anyone who claims macs cant get viruses is kidding themselves, but honestly we dont bother attempting to clean infected macs. wipe and restore. put your money into protecting your data and for the love of all gods install the updates.
going crazy and jumping into the jamf consumer level ecosystem is an option as well. but way over the top unless you're really bored with money to burn.
clamxav
ClamAV has a maximum size for files that it will scan, which I believe is 20MB. I can’t tell if clamxav has the same size limit baked in, but it might! So it may not be the best solution if you have large files in your system.
huh, i cant tell if that limitation is in the modern mac version either. eh, i dont recommened buying anti virus anyway. looking into a dns ad blocker like pihole is a good tactic as well. I got tired of my kid turning his windows system into threat to everything on my network. few public block lists on a pihole did more good than the windows anti virus.
What is a Virus?
A lot of useful replies. Thanks everyone! I’m going to stick with the built in protections and just be a careful browser.
I use the Defender for Endpoint that comes with my Office subscription but I agree that unless you have an organizational EDR solution that can mitigate the fact you have to open up the system permissions to allow system scanning, it’s probably smarter to use ad block on your browser, use only vetted apps, and not override the default security controls.
That being said it’s probably not realistic to only use App Store apps, or keep things 100% locked down. If you are going to open things up. Use a reputable EDR solution and not just some free program like AVG or malwarebytes.
Another vote for not bothering with any antivirus. Uninstall AVG too.
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