the most effective antivirus and malware app thats free for mac

The Most Effective Antivirus And Malware App Thats How To Use It
The Most Effective Antivirus And Malware App Thats Skin Of The

It really just does one thing: scan for viruses and malware, and it automatically downloads new virus definitions.

And although such a blunt statement may be a blow to the ego of some Mac users, it remains true.

Security researchers from all walks have long argued that it was only a matter of time before the Mac became popular enough that virus, malware, and spyware makers would come calling, and the recent Flashback scare has only served as a reminder that overconfidence precedes carelessness.

Though neither incident ended up infecting every single Mac, they both showed that malware on the Mac is ever-so-slowly inching its way into our public consciousness.

Market share brings attacker motivation, Kaspersky Lab told the press last month, and Mac market share is definitely on the rise.

Your mileage may vary, but here are our impressions of five different antivirus packages after installing and using each one.

The main interface (pictured above) is simple enough to use: push the big green button to begin scanning your stuff.

The Most Effective Antivirus And Malware App Thats Skin Of The

Like most antivirus programs, you can change your security level depending on how strict you want the scans to be, tweak notification settings for when suspicious files are found, and can even change the skin of the software (thank goodness).

You can also have the software scan for a particular type of malware, so if you only want to look for trojans instead of adware or auto-dialers, you can do so.

Everything worked as expected when we used this one, though depending on your personal needs, you may not want to pay 39.95 per year for it.

Theres just a lot going on when you launch this software, and for the average user, it might be a bit overwhelming.

You may notice in the screenshot above that it says my filters are 166 days old, but clicking on it just displays a new message saying I cant download new onesthis is confusing and perhaps somewhat alarming to someone trying to stay protected from malware, and left me dinging Intego for usability points.

VirusBarrier also has a fraudulent website protection option for cookies, and even offers a way to hide your browser info and last site visited from other sites trying to track your browsing behavior.

Like Kasperskys software, Integos also comes with an easy-to-find uninstaller.

Overall, we felt fine about Intego, though the sheer number of available options left us feeling a bit overwhelmed.

For 49.95 per year, it could be worth your while if youre looking for a very complete solution that lets you lock down on everything but the kitchen sink, but if all you want is simplicity, you arent likely to find it here.

Then you have to click a link to confirm, which then sends you a second e-mail confirmation that requires to you to click another link to download.

This is no Integothere arent 94 buttons on the main screen for you to choose from.

It also turns on your OS X firewall by default (though you can turn it off again in your settings if youd like) and well, thats pretty much it.

The Most Effective Antivirus And Malware App Thats How To Use It

The offering doesnt overwhelm the user and its not hard to figure out how to use it.

But I cant in good faith endorse F-Secures offering given my experiences when installing and running it.

I installed this software twice on two separate computers and had nonstop bad experiencesit completely debilitated my machine one time to the point where trying to open a Finder window was an hour-long task with nonstop beachballs.

One Mac Genius I spoke to even believed the SSD in my Mac had been corrupted because the performance was suddenly so poor.).

Luckily, uninstalling the software appeared to restore my computers back to their actual, usable states.

The uninstaller can be found in Applications F-Secure after you install it initially.) You may have different experiences with this one, but I plan to stay far away.

The Most Effective Antivirus And Malware App Thats Free For Mac