Hey folks. Anyone running an AV on a mac? Recommendations? I had the free version of Avast for the longest time - but off late, it has started putting in a VPN I could not get rid off. So uninstalled. Happy to pay.

Do we need an AV on mac? I was under the impression that we need it only for windows.

Right. Ironically, I have stopped installing a third party AV on Windows because MS has started doing such a good job with their AV (+ some safe behaviours on your part). On the mac side, I think I need it more for malware than virus protection. I still want to have peace of mind when I download apps from third party sites and allow them to run from the System Pref. I don’t have that great a grasp of the Mac ecosystem to not have an AV installed.

I would suggest LittleSnitch like software where you can permit apps to contact a domain. the initial setup is a bit annoying when you are starting off, but helps me ensure apps dont make connections without the user knowing. Some tools I use are from Objective See when apps are doing some mischief.

Just to bring this thread to a close, I have moved to installing BitDefender on my machine - got a 3 computers x 3 years licence for 890 bucks on Amazon. It was rated highly on a number of trusted AV review sites and I decided to give that a shot. Have been using it for a week now and the UI is good and is unobtrusive and doesn’t install any VPNs it is not supposed to like Avast does. (You can enable it’s VPN if you want manually). Also no ads and no annoying popups. Hadn’t used Bitdefender before this but am quite happy with it. No ads even while trialing it. And it immediately detected (a mock virus) on downloading it.

My experience with Bit Defender has been different. I installed a paid version on my Windows 7 and it added a lot of delay to the boot and shut down process. It also added a VPN that I couldn’t get rid of. Uninstalled it promptly.

@hundreds-winter-88791 Thanks for highlighting your feedback. When was this? Maybe they have changed since then?

Last month.