Best Mac Antivirus

Best free antivirus for Mac: Avast Free Mac Security Many antivirus suites provide a decent level of protection, but a few rise above all others by providing the very best in performance.

Kaspersky Internet Security for Mac

Kaspersky Internet Security for Mac's top-shelf malware detection and barely there system impact make it the best antivirus solution.

Avast Free Mac Security

Avast Free Mac Security's malware-squashing proficiency, negligible performance impact and included password manager make it the best free option.

Bitdefender Antivirus for Mac

Bitdefender Antivirus for Mac offers top-shelf malware detection and protects files from ransomware.

After evaluating eight free and paid antivirus products, we've chosen Kaspersky Internet Security for Mac ($40 per year) as the best antivirus for Mac. It had a nearly invisible impact on system performance, and it caught all malware.

Avast Mac Security Free

Avast Free Mac Security is our favorite free option, as it provided nearly perfect malware protection and an easy-to-use interface with an imperceptible performance hit.

You do need an antivirus program on your Mac. Recent years have seen more Mac malware and adware than ever before, from Trojans to targeted attacks, supply-chain attacks like the XcodeGhost attack and even encrypting ransomware.

MORE: Best Antivirus Software and Apps

Best Firewall For Mac

Latest Security Alerts and Threats

— Google pushed out an emergency patch for its Chrome browser for Windows, macOS and Linux after a vulnerability was found that could let a malicious website take over a computer. ADVICE: Copy and paste 'chrome://settings/help' into your Chrome address bar to make sure your browser is updated to version 76.0.3809.132.

— Apple patched a security hole that let you -- or a malicious website -- jailbreak an iPhone and install any kind of app, including potential malware. (This is not among the flaws that let several websites infect any iPhone.) ADVICE: Make sure your iPhone, iPad or iPod Touch is updated to iOS 12.4.1.

— Spammers have been sending emails to inject scam or malicious messages in regular people's Google Calendar pages. ADVICE: Follow our instructions to stop phony Google Calendar notifications from happening to you.

How We Tested

To find the best antivirus for Mac desktops and laptops, we evaluate ease of use, interface and performance impact, we installed each AV program on the same Late 2013 MacBook Pro with Retina Display running macOS 10.12 Sierra. It was powered by a 2.6-GHz Intel Core i7 processor and had 8GB of RAM and 70GB of data stored on a 512GB SSD.

We conducted our own tests in July and August 2017 based on how much each antivirus product affected our laptop's performance. To do this, we used our custom OpenOffice benchmark, which matches 20,000 names and addresses in a spreadsheet. We measured how long it took to run a quick scan and a full scan while the laptop crunched numbers in the background.

We assessed how easy each program was to use and the number of useful extra features it offered (including free add-on software). To gauge how effective each package was at stopping malware, we used the results of evaluations conducted in May 2017 by AV-TEST, a well-regarded independent product-testing lab in Germany, and results from other tests conducted in July 2017 by AV-Comparatives, a similarly well-respected firm in Austria.

Best Mac Antivirus

Reasons to Buy

Kaspersky Internet Security is the best antivirus for Macs because it offers both the lowest system impact and some of the best malware-detection rates recorded. It even provides extra security features, including parental controls and options to lock down your webcam and stop websites from tracking your browsing activity. If you're willing to pay to protect your Mac from malware, Kaspersky Internet Security is the best option available.

Best Free Mac Antivirus

Reasons to Buy

Avast Free Mac Security caught 99.9 percent of all malware, packs in a password manager, barely leaves a smudge on system impact and doesn't charge a dime. If only it caught 100 percent of malware, as Kaspersky did.

Reasons to Buy

Avast For Mac Review

Bitdefender Antivirus for Mac is one of only a few solutions we tested that offers perfect malware detection. Further, its modern, streamlined interface places on-demand scans front and center. Bitdefender has dropped from first place, though, because its system-impact scores don't match the flawless marks posted by Kaspersky.

Reasons to Avoid

Norton 360 Deluxe may offer excellent protection, but it charges more (after the first year) than its competitors do, without offering as many perks. Norton AntiVirus Plus offers similar protection for a single Mac, but with fewer perks. Still, both have always-on-call customer support.

Reasons to Buy

Reasons to Avoid

If you're looking for the best antivirus for Mac without having to pay, AVG AntiVirus for Mac is not too shabby, with its 99.9 percent detection rate and easy-to-use design. Unfortunately, other free competitors provide extras (Sophos with parental controls, Avast's password manager) that AVG does not.

Best for Families

Reasons to Buy

With Sophos Home for Mac's simple interface and low system-performance impact, you'll barely realize the program is shielding you until you need it. Anyone with young children at home will find Sophos' parental controls useful, as they allow for remote scans and checks, and let you block sites by category. Sophos even keeps a log of when users try to reach banned pages. This program's major drawback, though, is its lackluster malware-detection rate.

Reasons to Buy

Avast Security Pro For Mac

Once our favorite, Avira Free Antivirus for Mac is no longer the best antivirus for Mac. That's because it is a hair shy of perfection in its malware detection, and fell behind in system-performance testing, earning some of the higher performance impacts recorded.

Reasons to Buy

Reasons to Avoid

While McAfee's unlimited licenses mean you can support a whole family of Macs (and PCs and Android devices, too), this program's lack of special features (for a paid version) make it hard to recommend. Further, we don't have malware-detection testing scores for McAfee, so its protection powers are unproven.

Updated: June 5, 2019 Home » Computer and Internet Security » Download Free Antivirus [ Windows / macOS ]

One of the biggest myth regarding computer security on an Apple Mac is your computer will never ever be infected with any malware. Due to the fact that most Apple Mac OS X user does not have any antivirus installed, let alone any fire wall, it becomes hackers favorite target. Firewall for Mac is good for Stopping spyware, Monitoring any keylogger installed and Stop Trojan from sending credit card information.

Alternative Article ➤ 21 Complete List Comparison Of macOSX Antivirus Apps

↓ 01 – One Periodic’s Hands Off! | $49.99

To keep you and your computer secure, Hands Off! silently monitors all operations performed by the applications running on your computer. As soon as an application tries to perform an operation for which there is no rule defined, a Hands Off! notification will appear. The notification contains all the relevant information about the operation to allow you to make an informed decision. Moreover, until you answer the notification, the operation is safely blocked and Hands Off! keeps you protected.

• Prevents applications from phoning home
• Blocks outgoing network connections
• Blocks incoming network connections
• Blocks domain name resolving
• Easily blocks multiple subdomains
• Protects from trojans, worms and network parasites
• Supports IPv4, IPv6 and local networks

↓ 02 – Little Snitch 3 | Network Monitoring | € 29.95

Firewall for incoming connections. Little Snitch not only reveals any outgoing network connection attempt to make sure that sensitive data doesn’t leave your computer without your consent. The inbound firewall in Little Snitch provides you with the same level of control for incoming connections.

↓ 03 – Murus Lite App | OS X Firewall Unchained | FREE

Free Firewall For Mac

Murus Lite is the entry level firewall front end. Everybody can download it and use it for free. It features inbound filtering and logging and can be used to protect services running on the Mac. Despite being free Murus Lite is not a tryout or demo. It is a full featured app and is a good starting point for the novice user.

• Inbound filtering
• Inbound logging
• Expanded PF Config.
• Ports Management

↓ 04 – Radio Silence | Firewall For Mac | USD9

Radio Silence is a tiny firewall that lets you block any application from accessing the internet. It is designed for people who are not interested in configuring traditional firewalls. Radio Silence supports OS X Yosemite, Mavericks, Mountain Lion, Lion, and Snow Leopard. It only takes a few seconds to install.

• 100% Annoyance-free – Radio Silence respects your concentration. That is why it will never interrupt you with pop-up windows or alerts.
• Zero Maintenance – Once the firewall is installed, you can forget all about it. It is always on and needs no attention from you.
• Tiny and Fast – Radio Silence weighs next to nothing. It doesn’t waste any time or resources, which also makes it blazingly fast.
• Usable by Anyone – You don’t have to be a network expert to use this firewall. It takes care of all the technical details for you.

How to Turn on Firewall Security on Apple Mac OS

The Mac firewall is turned off by default, no reason given by Apple why they did not enabled it by default. It is always better to be safe than sorry, therefore there is nothing to lose by enabling it, especially if your router has no Hardware Firewall capability.

Step 1 – Go to ‘System Preferences‘, click on ‘Security & Privacy‘.

Step 2 – On the Security & Privacy window, click on the ‘Firewall‘ tab.

Step 3 – To turn on the firewall security feature, you will need to unlock it. To unlock this settings window click on the padlock in the bottom left corner of the window. Set the password to unlock it.

Step 4 – With the Firewall feature unlocked, click on the ‘Turn On Firewall’ button. Congratulation, the firewall on the Apple Mac OS X is now enabled.

Mac Computers Fall Prey to Flashback Trojan

With the ever-growing volume of malicious software attacks on Mac computers, Mac users no longer feel their computers are safe from Internet security risks. The Flashback Trojan virus has affected over 700,000 users. Find out if your Mac is infected – and discover how to protect against Flashback and Mac OS X malware attacks.

Firewall For Mac Os X