Macbooks and malware

February 10, 2023 9:12 AM

I'm running ClamXAV on my 2020 MacBook Air with Ventura 13.1 OS. It's up for renewal in a week. Do I really need this protection? Or can I safely run without some sort of antivirus/malware?

I have to step away for a few hours but
am happy to answer questions later. Thanks.

posted by Hobgoblin to Computers & Internet (3 answers total)

Best answer: You don't need that. macOS has built-in active AV now. There's an Apple support article about it.
posted by michaelh at 9:52 AM on February 10, 2023 [2 favorites]

Best answer: Yep, agreed. If you feel better running some sort of a regular scan Malwarebytes' free version should be fine for what you need.
posted by jessamyn at 9:55 AM on February 10, 2023 [3 favorites]

Best answer: A slightly geekier answer: I co-manage a large fleet of macOS devices across multiple businesses, and I can attest that beyond-the-box anti-malware software like Malwarebytes or ClamXAV does catch things that the OS-layer filtering like XProtect and Gatekeeper do not. I know, because I get a service ticket every time it happens :) So although it's not life-or-death must-have territory for everyday users, it does have its place depending on the use case.

However IMO you'd get a bigger bang for your security buck by first layering DNS filtering on top of your on-device security rather than running extra AV software on your computer. I've gladly used OpenDNS Prosumer at $20/year, which covers all devices on your network, with no software to install, and helps secure against a different range of threats than AV can--such as Phishing attacks. Personally I'd buy that before I bought another year of ClamX.
posted by churl at 12:16 PM on February 10, 2023 [8 favorites]