Should I Get Antivirus Software For My Mac' title='Should I Get Antivirus Software For My Mac' />The best Mac antivirus software 2. One of the following statements isnt true Macs dont get viruses. Ed Sheerans Galway Girl is a great song. TV presented Bob Holness played the ax solo in Baker Street. Our experts have reviewed the best small business antivirus software for 2017. See uptodate comparisons for the top rated programs. Did you spot it Thats right theyre all bobbins. But as far as Mac users are concerned, the first statement has a corollary while Macs can get viruses, most dont. We should probably explain. Do Macs get viruses Yes and no. Organ Serial Numbers. Mac viruses do exist, but its very hard for them to spread. OS X and mac. OS are based on the Unix operating system, which is sandboxed. That means its very difficult for viruses to do any damage. Think of them as locked in a little box from which they cant escape no matter how hard they try. Not only is a Mac much more difficult to hack or compromise than a Windows PC, but the relative obscurity of Macs means that even if a criminal does find a vulnerability to exploit, its a lot more effort to attack far fewer computers. That means Macs benefit from security by obscurity the baddies target the more common and potentially lucrative Windows machines instead. Mac users were spared the Wanna. Cry ransomware that devastated Windows systems, but Apple devices have experienced other malware attacks. Antivirus software is critical for every PC. Without it, you risk losing your personal information, your files, and even the cash from your bank account. Weve tested. Get free legal antivirus free internet security software for your PC to protect against viruses, adware, spyware, worms, trojans more, without paying a penny. Thats great for Mac users, of course, but its also meant an entire generation of people believing that Macs dont get malware of any kind. Unfortunately, Macs can and do, so when malware affecting Macs does appear or a popular Mac app gets bundled with a trojan, users are completely unprepared. For example, Mac owners might have been spared the hassle of ransomware app WannacryWanna. Crypt in May 2. 01. Windows devices, but 7,0. Macs were infected with similar malware in 2. Ultimately, if you use a Mac, you need to consider whether the so far, fairly remote risk of infection is worth sacrificing performance, money or both. What are the biggest security risks to Macs The bad guys favourite malware is currently ransomware a type of app that locks up the victims computer and only unlocks it if a ransom is paid. And as some victims have discovered, it turns out that you just cant trust criminals people who did pay up found that they were asked to pay again, or that their card details were copied and used. Ransomware made it to the Mac in 2. Ke. Ranger trojan was discovered in the Transmission Bit. Torrent client. Its believed that the infection happened through compromising the Transmission website and replacing the real DMG download with an infected one. Some 7,0. 00 Macs are believed to have been infected. The readme file included with the Ke. Ranger trojan, telling the user that their files have been encrypted and will only be released for a ransom of one Bitcoin. The fact that Ke. Ranger generated so many headlines underlines how unusual such malware actually is nobody holds the front page when a new Windows vulnerability is discovered. The reality is that unless youre exceptionally unlucky, if you keep your Mac up to date, dont download cracked software, dont mess with OS Xs default sandboxing settings, dont believe pop ups that tell you to upgrade Flash and dont click on phishing or other fraudulent emails then youre likely to remain perfectly safe. That may not remain the case forever, though, and Apple has been accused of reacting too slowly when genuine threats are discovered. So what can you expect from Mac antivirus softwareMac antivirus which is best at detecting threats The excellent AV TEST regularly puts anti virus programs through their paces, and their most recent tests took place in July 2. OS Sierra. They tested two key areas how well the packages detected Mac specific threats, and how well they protected against Macs in mixed OS environments being hijacked to spread Windows malware. For Mac malware, four packages achieved 1. The next four achieved between 9. The worst performer was Mac. Keeper, with 8. 5. In mixed operating system environments, five programs achieved 9.