Recently, the engineers and researchers of AV-TEST organization ran some tests on several anti-virus and malware protection suites for MacOS to find out which security systems are the best in terms of providing absolute protection, performance, and usability. The products they tested to check each of these three categories were awarded a maximum of 6 points per category. This means that the best security product got 18 points in total.
The five security solutions that were tested included Avast Security, Avira Antivirus Pro, Bitdefender Antivirus for Mac, NortonLifeLock Norton 360, and Trend Micro Antivirus.
Out of these five products, Avira, Trend Micro, and NortonLifeLock were found to have performed the best with 6 points in each test and getting 18 points as their final score.
Bitdefender Antivirus for Mac got 5.5 points for the protection category and 17.5 points as its final score. The total score of Avast Security was 16.5 points because of its lesser points in the test for protection and performance.
This research was necessary because times have changed, and although MacOS used to be considered as one of the most secure operating systems, AV-TEST organization has found out through some previous tests that the number of malware attacks on Mac computers has increased over all these years.
From 2008 to 2014, the number of viruses, Trojans, and other attacks was very low for the Mac operating system. During this period, the AV-TEST database counted only 7300 samples of Mac malware. This number exponentially increased and within two years, by 2016, the database counted more than 40,000 malware samples for Mac. This number further doubled by 2018 and in 2020, more than 240,000 malware attackers for Mac OS have surfaced. This means that with the evolution in operating systems and their performances, the attackers have also evolved, and they have upped their game to a higher notch now, with their attacks directed towards the Mac OS. In the past, Windows was considered as the most vulnerable operating system. Sadly, this is not true anymore. While Windows improved its security systems over time, the attackers also found new ways to not only attack Windows OS but also shifted their aim at the Mac OS.
So, considering all these facts, the AV-TEST organization thinks that the operating systems have to be more defensive and the security products have to be more up to the mark in terms of the protection they provide, their performance, and their usability. And it is also important for the users to take care of their system’s security too. Users should avoid downloading data from insecure sources and must avoid visiting sites that are suspicious.
The five security solutions that were tested included Avast Security, Avira Antivirus Pro, Bitdefender Antivirus for Mac, NortonLifeLock Norton 360, and Trend Micro Antivirus.
Out of these five products, Avira, Trend Micro, and NortonLifeLock were found to have performed the best with 6 points in each test and getting 18 points as their final score.
Bitdefender Antivirus for Mac got 5.5 points for the protection category and 17.5 points as its final score. The total score of Avast Security was 16.5 points because of its lesser points in the test for protection and performance.
This research was necessary because times have changed, and although MacOS used to be considered as one of the most secure operating systems, AV-TEST organization has found out through some previous tests that the number of malware attacks on Mac computers has increased over all these years.
From 2008 to 2014, the number of viruses, Trojans, and other attacks was very low for the Mac operating system. During this period, the AV-TEST database counted only 7300 samples of Mac malware. This number exponentially increased and within two years, by 2016, the database counted more than 40,000 malware samples for Mac. This number further doubled by 2018 and in 2020, more than 240,000 malware attackers for Mac OS have surfaced. This means that with the evolution in operating systems and their performances, the attackers have also evolved, and they have upped their game to a higher notch now, with their attacks directed towards the Mac OS. In the past, Windows was considered as the most vulnerable operating system. Sadly, this is not true anymore. While Windows improved its security systems over time, the attackers also found new ways to not only attack Windows OS but also shifted their aim at the Mac OS.
So, considering all these facts, the AV-TEST organization thinks that the operating systems have to be more defensive and the security products have to be more up to the mark in terms of the protection they provide, their performance, and their usability. And it is also important for the users to take care of their system’s security too. Users should avoid downloading data from insecure sources and must avoid visiting sites that are suspicious.
