May 30, 2017 - Do I Need an Anti-Virus Program for My Mac? That's not to say it's impossible to create a virus that could bring down a Mac; it's just more.

Schema validation excel for mac free. Friday, March 3rd, 2017 Author: One reason that many people move from the world of Windows to macOS is because they’re tired of the hassles of having their PCs infected with viruses and other malware. The other reason? The miseries of the tools that allegedly fix those problems but cause even new PCs to run slowly and crash more often.

When new owners first set up their new machines, one question they may have is whether or not they’re taking a risk by not installing that same genre of application on their Macs. The answer to the question “Do Macs need antivirus or anti-malware software?” is “No, but” As a Mac user since late 1984, I have never had a virus, and I’ve rarely seen malware that caused an issue for more than just a few minutes. That includes the early days of Mac when the operating system wasn’t Unix-based with all of its built-in security features. Related article: So, as a longtime Mac owner and user, a former Mac consultant, and a writer specializing in the world of Apple devices, I’ve usually used my Macs with absolutely no anti-virus or anti-malware software. Am I just lucky? Not really, because even without a specific antivirus or anti-malware package installed, I take a lot of precautions and Apple has built in a number of “safety nets”. They’re the functions that are constantly monitoring what’s going on behind the scenes on your Mac to keep you safe.

First, I’ll talk about Apple’s safety nets, then other precautions that can help keep your Mac safe with minimal fuss. Apple’s Built-In Safety Nets The first safety net keeps you protected from most malware. Keyboard shortcut for indent.

XProtect runs constantly in the background on OS X and macOS machines. It’s installed by default, runs without user intervention, and is even updated automatically.

Since it is part of the operating system, it’s also very fast and doesn’t cause the usual slowdowns associated with dedicated antivirus/malware apps. As Apple is made aware of vulnerabilities and malware, both from “white hat hackers” and security firms, it invisibly patches XProtect to keep your Mac protected. XProtect matches files and applications that have been downloaded to your Mac against a list of known “bad guys”. If it catches a malicious file, you’ll be notified immediately, usually with a message stating that “the file may damage your computer”, the type of malware or virus it caught, and a warning to move the file to Trash immediately (see image below).

Gatekeeper is another handy tool that’s watching out for you. Have you ever downloaded an app from somewhere and seen a message that said something like ” ‘App name’ can’t be opened because it was not downloaded from the Mac App Store” or ” ‘App name’ can’t be opened because it is from an unknown developer”? That’s Gatekeeper at work. Gatekeeper is another part of macOS that builds upon the XProtect malware protection to insure that apps that have not gone through the rigorous vetting to get into the Mac App Store or that have not been digitally signed by a developer can do anything bad to your Mac. One thing about Gatekeeper is that it can be set up to provide various levels of “gatekeeping”. This is done by launching System Preferences > Security & Privacy > General, and then selecting one of the available choices.

If you like living on the edge of danger, you can set it up to allow downloads from “Anywhere” — this is not recommended, as there’s a higher probability of downloading an app with a malicious payload (see image below): Instead, leave the setting at “Mac App Store and identified developers”. This is the default setting and allows Mac App Store apps and those from developers that have used digital signing on their apps to be immediately downloaded and installed. If the setting is left at “Mac App Store”, any file downloaded from another site — like a trusted developers website — will not be allowed to install on the Mac. On occasion, you might get a warning from Gatekeeper about an app that was downloaded from another site. You may get the option to still install it, but if the dialog that appears doesn’t give you that option, you can right-click it and select “Open” from the contextual menu to launch it. Now let’s talk about other precautions that you should take if you want to forgo antivirus or anti-malware software on your Mac.