The difference is that the latter disguise itself as good software so you would run it yourself, while most vulnerabilities provide a way for malware to execute without your consent (or even knowing).
It only protects you from malware that pretends to be legitimate software. Antimalware does not protect against vulnerabilities. I still run the free stuff all the time on my Macs, just in case, but I no longer have it on a daily schedule like I used to after the WoW account being compromised.Ĭlick to expand.NO. I was still a little paranoid all those years later, and ran the anti-malware SW when I connect a new device to my Macs, and sure enough, I finally found some malware, two actually.īut was for Windows, and harmless to a Mac. Until two years ago, the day I connected a cheap toddler digital camera that I got my little girl on Amazon to one of my Macs. I tried a few other SW that was free, but still nothing. I did a daily scan on my Macs using this paid SW for years, and never got one hit.
I had a pretty weak PW at the time.Īnyways, I started to get paranoid that I had keyloggers, spyware, or something on my computer, and I got a SW that was recommended on the old MacLife forums that are now gone. I still don't know how it happened, but in retrospect, it was probably brute forced. Click to expand.I wouldn't recommend anyone not to use third party anti-malware SW, and that isn't the point of me posting what I am about to post, but I wanted to share my history with using anti-malware SW.Ī very long time ago, maybe 15 years ago, I had my WoW account "hacked".