Is Malwarebytes the best protection for my MAC Pro?

[Sky]

Is Malwarebytes the best protection for my MAC Pro? I've read conflicting reviews about MAC protection, Ranging from. You don't need any protection on a MAC, to shill reviews advising ours is the best. So I thought I'd contact you guy's and ask here. Could anyone bring me up to date on this issue please? Love & Peace aways. . Sky

 

[Spawn_Dooley]

Well I have the free version of Malwarebytes but it never finds anything ... I feel you don't really need any protection other than the inbuilt Firewall ... and to exercise prudence when surfing the web ... be very careful what you click on ... if you do get stuck then you can always restore from a previous Time Machine backup ...

 

[Sky]

Well I have the free version of Malwarebytes but it never finds anything ... I feel you don't really need any protection other than the inbuilt Firewall ... and to exercise prudence when surfing the web ... be very careful what you click on ... if you do get stuck then you can always restore from a previous Time Machine backup ...

Thank you. I probably need to get another hard drive for the time machine as I've never backed up. .

 

[honestone]

While exercising as much care as possible when surfing the web is excellent advice, there are times where even stuff gets "placed" on your system. I once had a strange Bitcoin "infection" (nothing came of it), and I certainly don't remember doing anything associated with Bitcoin.

Malwarebytes is very good for finding "ad ware" stuff on your Mac, but not too effective for viruses. An excellent, inexpensive product (you can use it in demo mode for 30 days) is ClamXAV, available from here:

https://www.clamxav.com/

I have used it, and it did catch some "isolated" virus-infected files once. It works very well.

Finally, yes, do perform backups. However, be aware that to recover from a "disaster" with a Time Machine backup is a slow process. This link describes the choices one had for backups:

https://www.mac-help.com/threads/backups-backups-backups.223959/

I myself use SuperDuper!, and it has always been a "life saver" for me. It is especially helpful when I am doing an "upgrade" to a new Mac OS (or sometimes doing an "in Mac OS" upgrade).

 

[Sky]

While exercising as much care as possible when surfing the web is excellent advice, there are times where even stuff gets "placed" on your system. I once had a strange Bitcoin "infection" (nothing came of it), and I certainly don't remember doing anything associated with Bitcoin.

Malwarebytes is very good for finding "ad ware" stuff on your Mac, but not too effective for viruses. An excellent, inexpensive product (you can use it in demo mode for 30 days) is ClamXAV, available from here:

https://www.clamxav.com/

I have used it, and it did catch some "isolated" virus-infected files once. It works very well.

Finally, yes, do perform backups. However, be aware that to recover from a "disaster" with a Time Machine backup is a slow process. This link describes the choices one had for backups:

https://www.mac-help.com/threads/backups-backups-backups.223959/

I myself use SuperDuper!, and it has always been a "life saver" for me. It is especially helpful when I am doing an "upgrade" to a new Mac OS (or sometimes doing an "in Mac OS" upgrade).

Thank you. Can I ask what SuperDuper is?

 

[honestone]

Thank you. Can I ask what SuperDuper is?

You're welcome. Did you read that link I provided?

Here are the links for SuperDuper! and Carbon Copy Cloner:

SuperDuper! - https://www.shirt-pocket.com/SuperDuper/SuperDuperDescription.html

Carbon Copy Cloner - https://bombich.com/

Note that you can use either of them in "free trial mode" for 30 days. However, when I first downloaded SuperDuper! a couple of years ago, I used it in demo mode for quite some time. But it is definitely worth the $27.95 price (as is Carbon Copy Cloner for $39.95).

 

[William Dorsey]

Sophos, a British app, is free on Macs for home use, updates itself regularly, and has caught malware hidden in email and other places for me. A few years ago, however, someone did manage to piggyback spam sends — thousands of them — whenever I sent something from home via my employer's email account (a college, thus one that routinely handles large volumes of email) and I finally got Norton (Symantec) Antivirus which costs like $50/year and has been quite effective. Never did find out who/what had taken the piggyback ride, though.

 

[Phillip Jones]

Is Malwarebytes the best protection for my MAC Pro? I've read conflicting reviews about MAC protection, Ranging from. You don't need any protection on a MAC, to shill reviews advising ours is the best. So I thought I'd contact you guy's and ask here. Could anyone bring me up to date on this issue please? Love & Peace aways. . Sky

When I first installed Malware Bytes Mac It found numerous malware type. It supposed to work proactively. If it doesn't find anything has done it's job well. It supposed to learn new malware and the MalwareBytes is periodically updated with new Malware titles.

 

[honestone]

As I stated above, Malwarebytes is very good, but it does not go "as deep" as other products. Again, ClamXAV is excellent at finding viruses (and "malware/adware").

 

[honestone]

Well, speaking of security, I just posted this thread in the Apple News section:

https://www.mac-help.com/threads/significant-security-issue.224260/#post-1550567

I am going to run Malwarebytes and ClamXAV much more frequently (maybe daily?) until Apple comes out with a patch for this. Really, really bothersome Intel could be so deficient with this!

 

[ROBERT H. BAUCOM]

Thank you. I probably need to get another hard drive for the time machine as I've never backed up. .

Be careful with Time Machine. Don't set it for Automatic Back Up. IT will back up every 10 minutes and then loose your back up. That's what happened to m e. I now use the same External HDD BUT, Turn it on, select back up now from Time Machine. After it backs up, move the External HDD icon on the Desktop to the trash. Then turn off the External HDD. You can then shut down or log off.

 

[honestone]

Good advice, Robert. I use SuperDuper!, and while it can be configured to do "incremental" backups, I do my backups only once a week. That is sufficient for my purposes, but I understand if some folks need intermediate documents backed up frequently.

 

[Sky]

You're welcome. Did you read that link I provided?

Here are the links for SuperDuper! and Carbon Copy Cloner:

SuperDuper! - https://www.shirt-pocket.com/SuperDuper/SuperDuperDescription.html

Carbon Copy Cloner - https://bombich.com/

Note that you can use either of them in "free trial mode" for 30 days. However, when I first downloaded SuperDuper! a couple of years ago, I used it in demo mode for quite some time. But it is definitely worth the $27.95 price (as is Carbon Copy Cloner for $39.95).

Thank you

 

[Sky]

Sophos, a British app, is free on Macs for home use, updates itself regularly, and has caught malware hidden in email and other places for me. A few years ago, however, someone did manage to piggyback spam sends — thousands of them — whenever I sent something from home via my employer's email account (a college, thus one that routinely handles large volumes of email) and I finally got Norton (Symantec) Antivirus which costs like $50/year and has been quite effective. Never did find out who/what had taken the piggyback ride, though.

Thank you, I've never heard of that! I'll have a look.

 

[Sky]

Well, speaking of security, I just posted this thread in the Apple News section:

https://www.mac-help.com/threads/significant-security-issue.224260/#post-1550567

I am going to run Malwarebytes and ClamXAV much more frequently (maybe daily?) until Apple comes out with a patch for this. Really, really bothersome Intel could be so deficient with this!

Thank you. I'll be keeping an eye for how you get on.

 

[Sky]

Be careful with Time Machine. Don't set it for Automatic Back Up. IT will back up every 10 minutes and then loose your back up. That's what happened to m e. I now use the same External HDD BUT, Turn it on, select back up now from Time Machine. After it backs up, move the External HDD icon on the Desktop to the trash. Then turn off the External HDD. You can then shut down or log off.

Thank you. You would have thought that this important feature would work at the click of a button. . I'm learning so much!

 

[honestone]

Regarding the recent (actually yesterday) posts I have made about the potentially major issue with Intel Chips, here is an update:

https://www.pcworld.com/article/324...cpu-kernel-bug-faq-how-it-affects-pc-mac.html

Note that under the section "Do you know when a fix is coming?", it states:

"Apple quietly protected against Meltdown in macOS High Sierra 10.13.2, which released on December 6, according to developer Alex Ionescu. Additional safeguards will be found in macOS 10.13.3, he says."

So it looks like upgrading to the latest version of High Sierra is a good thing. That also sheds more light on why High Sierra is slower at booting up and switching start up devices. Note, though, that nothing is mentioned about earlier versions of the Mac OS. To help folks out, I will try and follow this, and if there are any Mac OS updates (especially in relation to this issue), I will post such information.

 

[Sky]

Regarding the recent (actually yesterday) posts I have made about the potentially major issue with Intel Chips, here is an update:

https://www.pcworld.com/article/324...cpu-kernel-bug-faq-how-it-affects-pc-mac.html

Note that under the section "Do you know when a fix is coming?", it states:

"Apple quietly protected against Meltdown in macOS High Sierra 10.13.2, which released on December 6, according to developer Alex Ionescu. Additional safeguards will be found in macOS 10.13.3, he says."

So it looks like upgrading to the latest version of High Sierra is a good thing. That also sheds more light on why High Sierra is slower at booting up and switching start up devices. Note, though, that nothing is mentioned about earlier versions of the Mac OS. To help folks out, I will try and follow this, and if there are any Mac OS updates (especially in relation to this issue), I will post such information.

Thank you. It didn't even dawn on me that 10.13.2 had a patch in it. Now I'm really intrigued! You guy's are great and this is so helpful and interesting.. Again. Thank you. .

 

[honestone]

Thank you. It didn't even dawn on me that 10.13.2 had a patch in it. Now I'm really intrigued! You guy's are great and this is so helpful and interesting.. Again. Thank you. .

You're most welcome! I actually did not know that fact either until I saw the article earlier today.

I'm intrigued also, in that Apple did not previously state that such a patch was included. Maybe we need a real detective (Columbo and/or Sherlock Holmes) to help us out!

 

[honestone]

Here is some more information regarding this new security "issue":

https://www.pcworld.com/article/324...ors/intel-responds-to-the-cpu-kernel-bug.html

It contains some more details about patches coming from Intel, and also a couple of things one can do now if they are using Google Chrome (I use it, so I'm glad I read this).