Here are three antivirus solutions that will keep your Mac products protected.
There’s a misconception in the marketplace that Mac products don’t get spyware or any other malicious content. Not only is this false, but I’ve actually seen them become a bigger target for hackers and spyware activity in the past 15 months.
The vast majority of Mac products don’t have any antivirus protection, which is something to consider given that Mac products are becoming more prevalent. The old days where the ownership ratio was 90% PC/10% Mac are long gone. Nowadays, it’s more of a 60/40 split. Senior management businesspeople and any type of salesperson typically use Apple products, while finance and admin professionals usually use PCs.
So what are some solutions that can protect your Mac products? There are three that I’ll share with you. These do more than just download antivirus signatures—they also have impressive baseline features and are relatively inexpensive. A lot of them are native in the software itself and deal with malicious links, which is great for both the commercial and residential space.
Sophos Home: Not only is this product reliable, but it’s also free (up to a certain number of devices). It has commercial-grade products that are much more granular in how they scan and index for malicious content. Sophos Home is free, but Intercept X and all products related to it cost about $4 to $6 per seat.
Trend Micro: This tried-and-true product has a lot of features associated with it. Typically, this costs about $10 to $15 per seat in the commercial space and $120 per year in the residential space, which is well worth the price for the protection it provides.
Avast: This is a fairly new product that’s gotten a lot of positive reviews. We’ve seen it in a lot of our smaller accounts because it has an aggressive price point.
The vast majority of Mac products don’t have any antivirus protection.
All three of these products are great, but if I had to choose one, I’d go with Sophos Home. It’s updated regularly enough to stay on the cutting edge of malicious activity and leaves the lowest resource consumption footprint on your desktop or laptop.
The last thing I want to talk about today is the backup associated with Mac devices. Too often, people use iCloud as a backup. I know Apple wants you to do this, but you have to be careful because the way it overwrites and the access it gives to people on a certain account has occasionally caused trouble. Restoring from iCloud presents its share of challenges as well.
So when buying Mac products, keep in mind that they aren’t immune to viruses. It’s best to decide on a backup platform for your Mac device other than the iCloud that will encompass all the files and the system state of your device. This will make it easier to replicate if you lose it or it gets damaged. There are a lot of solutions available for this, so if you have any questions about which backup platform works best for you, don’t hesitate to call or email me.
Likewise, if you have questions about today’s topic or there’s anything else I can help you with, feel free to reach out to me as well. I’d love to help.
