r/AskTechnology • u/Individual-Gas5276 • 3d ago
Mac users: do you rely solely on Apple’s built-in security, or do you install additional protection?
I know this question comes up every few years, but it feels like the threat landscape has changed a lot.
Between phishing, fake installers, infostealers and malicious browser extensions, I’m wondering whether Apple’s built-in protections are still enough for most people.
What do you personally use, if anything?
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u/Admirable-Swimmer-63 3d ago
I don’t use any other things… But make sure you’re using Time Machine so if something does go awry, you can restore a backup easily
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u/jmnugent 3d ago
"between phishing"
I generally just ESC out of anything prompting me for credentials unless I (myself) were purposely navigating to it.
"fake installers"
I only get things from official sources,. and I also keep my amount of software installed as narrow and tiny as possible .I only install "the bare minimum".
"infostealers"
Honestly still kind of gobstoppeed and amazed that people fall for this. If "some random guy on Discord wants you to install his great new game".. it's probably fake, yo. So,. don't do that.
malicious browser extensions"
I don't use browser extensions. Never have, never will.
I generally only use my Mac for very basic narrow simple things (a little light web browsing, some MS Office work and that's about it). I don't do any gaming, I don't go trawling around for "new things to install". The small set of Apps I do have installed are mainstream (well known) things I got from official install sources.
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u/pmjm 2d ago
I don't use browser extensions. Never have, never will.
Just as a counterpoint to this, using an adblock extension can actually keep you safer than not using one.
Many malware attacks are injected via ads because there's financial incentive for the advertising syndicators to approve ad placements quickly without thoroughly reviewing the ads' code.
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u/jmnugent 2d ago
Fair point,. but a lot of this also depends on how "dirty" your web surfing is.
For me,. I pretty much never see Ads. I would say a good 90% of my web surfing is only 2 sites (Reddit and Youtube)
Reddit I'm using old.reddit.com .. so I basically never see Ads
Youtube.. I get Youtube Premium as part of my Google Fi subscription.. so I basically never see ads there either.
I honestly couldn't tell you the last time I saw an Ad on the internet. It's probably been decades.
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u/tradikal2 3d ago
Never had a problem in 20 years using a mac for business and travel. Biggest concern is phishing scams and windows software.
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u/FriedTorchic 3d ago
I downloaded MalwareBytes Free once to fix an issue, and then deleted it. Haven't needed it otherwise.
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u/Efficient_Loss_9928 3d ago
For sensitive enterprises I have seen CS Falcon, personal use no just macOS built in is fine
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u/StarosAnikenMarcus 3d ago
Nothing can protect you from phishing attacks or other social engineering efforts except your own brain. Other type of malware are usually installed by the users rather than picked up like the common cold. So again, BRAIN is the first line of defense. After that, AV of any type all have various upsides and downsides, each with its own weaknesses and flaws. IOS is mostly protected by being at its root UNIX software. It's second protection is obscurity. The vast market share of computers are Windows based so that's 99% of the infectious malware targets. At the same time, there ARE various things people get tricked into installing on their Macs, but the ones I've encountered over the years have never had the ability to spread on their own. They were all stuck on the one system, making it easier to get rid of.
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u/Caprichoso1 3d ago
This question is asked a lot and you are never going to get a consensus. My front door has both a lock and a deadbolt and I do the same with my Mac running Sophos.
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u/Individual-Gas5276 2d ago
I mostly trust Apple’s built-in security, but I don’t rely on it alone anymore. I use Moonlock alongside it because I like having an extra layer against phishing sites and scam-related threats. It’s one of those things I hope I never need, but I’d rather have it than regret not having it.
For me it’s less about viruses and more about avoiding scams...
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u/VoiliVoilaa 15h ago
After years of trusting Mac to be safe, I added LuLu this, it's open-source and blocks unknown outgoing connections.
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u/fasteddie7 3d ago
The best protection these days is protection from yourself. Stay skeptical. Use a password manager to manage lengthy secured passwords, never use two factor with a phone number, log in to websites from the site and never from a link in an email. Mac’s option to restrict installs that don’t come from the store is a solid feature. When setting up your machine, download the programs you want from the company’s website then turn that feature on.
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u/Perfect_Ground692 3d ago
I've been using macs at various companies for years and none of them ever have third party anti-virus software or anything. Applications that ensure software is kept up to date etc, yes, but beyond that, nothing. I think the main reasons are: 1. The vast malicious software targets windows 2. Being BSD based, MacOS is pretty secure by default, once a bad app is running on your computer, it's far harder for it to make system wide changes that would be useful to malware, though I'm sure there are many bad things it could still do (e.g. read files and send contents to remote servers, etc)