There are plenty of good options to choose from, adding an important layer of protection to your Mac’s inbuilt Gatekeeper defences – Quarantine and Xprotect – which warn you if you’re downloading unauthorised apps or malware.īrowsing the internet is one of the easiest ways to unknowingly download a virus or malware onto your Mac.

It’s a myth that you don’t need to have antivirus software installed to protect your Mac from viruses and malware. Here, we explore a few different ways you can protect your Mac. Malware authors have frequently found and exploited weaknesses, such as using obscure file formats or large file sizes that the sandbox can’t process, leaving Mac users at risk of infection.Antivirus software is fast becoming essential for daily Mac use, but there are far more threats than just viruses. While sandboxing adds another layer of security for Macs, not even the App Store nor sandboxed apps are 100% safe, as highlighted by the attack on the Chinese version of the App Store by the XCodeGhost Virus.

XProtect defends Macs against various types of malware, by scanning downloaded files for signs of infection, but it needs to be regularly updated to recognize new or emerging threats - and it won’t help you if you unwittingly land on an infected or unsafe website.Ī digital certificate is always seen as proof of a file’s security and a surefire sign that the file contains no malicious code, but cybercriminals can still plant malicious code at the file completion stage, exploit security gaps to sign their malicious files with valid digital certificates, and more. The macOS, or Mac OS X system, has existed for 40 years in various forms - it’s robust, and because of its regular updates, malware developers find it hard to keep up with the changes and write viruses that will successfully infect the Mac operating system.Īpple's basic malware detection is built directly into its Mac OS X operating system.

Can apple check my mac for viruses