Signatures are telltale signs that a file is in fact a malicious virus, and means it doesn’t need to be intensively scanned to work out that it’s harmful.

XProtect This is a detection tool built in to macOS that is kept up-to-date with the very latest virus ‘signatures’.

There are two ways MacOS looks to defend against malware: That isn’t to say that it’s impossible to catch a Mac virus, but the number of different strains is much smaller. Our lab tests Windows antivirus software with several thousand Windows-specific viruses each year, but tests only a few dozen on Mac computers. While the adage mentioned above isn’t strictly true, it is fair to say that there aren’t many viruses for Mac computers, which makes them hard to come by.

Read on to see your protection options.īrowse all our antivirus software reviews, or skip straight to the best antivirus packages from our tough tests. No computer is immune from cyberattacks, so each year Which? tests Mac antivirus software to their limits with hundreds of virus attacks including worms and ransomware to see how they fare. The old adage goes that Macs can’t get viruses, so why would you bother downloading, let alone paying for, antivirus software? We have a few reasons.

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