14 DAY TRIAL // German institute AV-TEST has conducted a new series of antivirus tests, this time on Mac OS X, to determine the best security products for Apple’s desktop operating system.
Mac OS X is traditionally referred to as the more secure alternative to Windows, as hackers and malware infections rarely target this platform and prefer to look for computers running Microsoft’s operating system.
But this doesn’t necessarily mean that OS X is actually safer because, as AV-TEST explains, attackers who are targeting Apple systems generally turn to more advanced techniques that can compromise a computer without a security app.
So believe it or not, but security products have become a must-have on Mac OS X too, and according to AV-TEST, there are plenty to choose from right now.
The best and the worst
The institute put to the test a total of 13 security products only to find out that 8 of them managed to block 100 percent of the malware. Avast, Avira, Bitdefender, ESET, Kaspersky, SentinelOne, Sophos, and Norton Security are all security products that offer 100 percent malware blocking efficiency.
Panda Antivirus 10.7 detected only 95.2 percent of the threats while Intego Mac Premium Bundle X8 was next with 92.9 percent. Three antivirus products failed to receive the certification because they dropped below the 90 percent threshold, and they are ClamXav, Webroot SecureAnywhere, and F-Secure Anti-Virus.
But while there are several options out there, it’s also worth mentioning that most of them actually significantly impact system performance.
AV-TEST claims that Avast, for example, which is one of the most effective security products on OS X, also slows down the computer the most because it scans files as you download them. The ones that do not hamper system performance are Reference, ClamXav, Panda, Symantec, and Bitdefender.
Overall, only four security products slow down Mac OS X devices by 10 percent, while all the others have a bigger impact on performance. Avast is the champion with 170 percent due to the fact that it automatically scans absolutely all downloads as files land on your PC.
