Which is the best security software for Mac?

ByBenjamin Balázs

German, the largest independent entity conducting comparative verification of security softwareAV-TESTCompares the performance of 12 kinds of security software for "OS X" which is OS for Mac, and publishes data.

12 Security Suites for Mac OS X Put to the Test | AV-TEST
https://www.av-test.org/en/news/news-single-view/12-security-suites-for-mac-os-x-put-to-the-test/

AV-TEST compares the "malware detection rate" of each security software with the "performance" of Mac when operating security software. Investigating "Malware Detection Rate" is to measure the competence as security software, and investigating "performance" of Mac when security software is operating means that the performance of PC when actually using security software It is to find more practical security software by checking if it goes down. 12 kinds of security software verified by AV-TEST are as follows and 4 out of 12 kinds verified are security software which can be used for free.

·Avast Mac Security 2015 11.7(free)
·AVG AntiVirus 2015(free)
·Avira Free Antivirus 3.2(free)
·Bitdefender Antivirus for Mac 4.0
·Canimaan Software ClamXav Sentry 3.5
·Dr.Web Anti-virus for OS X 10.1
·ESET Endpoint Security 6.1
·Kaspersky Internet Security 16.0
·Microworld eScan for Mac 5.5
·ProtectWorks AntiVirs 2.0
·Sophos Home 1.1(free)
·Symantec Norton Security 7.0

In the malware detection rate test, it is tested whether it can detect 120 malware including the newly detected one using the latest virus data. The results are as shown in the graph below, with 4 out of 12 recording 100% detection rate and 11 detection rate exceeding 90%. ProtectWorks AntiVirs was the only thing that uncovered the Tondemoni value of 49.17% detection rate.


"It is possible that malware that targets Windows that does not work on Mac may spread as a source of infection as a source of infection." By testing whether malware for Windows could be detected with Mac security software, ESET Endpoint Security We were able to detect as many as 11,000 malware, the most common. In addition, it seems that there were five other malware detectable for Windows, Kaspersky Internet Security, Bitdefender Antivirus for Mac, Microworld eScan for Mac, AVG AntiVirus, Avast Mac Security.

The graph below shows the result of examining the operation delay when copying / downloading data files of 839 files totaling 30.6 GB with each security software running on Mac. The blue color indicates the time taken for file copy, and light blue indicates the time required for file download. The top "Reference" shows the time taken for copying / downloading without security software.


Bitdefender Antivirus for Mac has the lowest behavioral delay, that is, the most lightweight as security software. As you can see from the graph, it seems that the top six security software can play the role of security software almost without delaying the operation of Mac. On the other hand, Dr.Web Anti - virus for OS X seems to produce a total delay of 1387 seconds, so it seems better to exclude it from options if you want to use crisp Mac.

From these results, AV-TEST said that Bitdefender Antivirus for Mac and ESET Endpoint Security are among the paid security software, and AVG AntiVirus is recommended for free security software.