Does Carthage provide antivirus? How do I enable antivirus on a Mac?
Carthage no longer provides Symantec Endpoint Protection anti-virus. What antivirus should I use on my Macintosh computer? How can I set up, install, and use the antivirus built-in to MacOS?
Answer
To uninstall Symantec Endpoint Protection, follow the instructions on Symantec's parent corporation's website: Remove Symantec software for Mac using RemoveSymantecMacFiles
MacOS, like Windows, has layers of security built-in. For macOS, Apple has the following layers of security:
- Signed System Volume, a read-only volume that isolates macOS's system files from your user data and prevents it from being tampered with.
- Symantec Integrity Protection, which enforces tamper-prevention on system data and user- and system-level processes running on your Mac.
- Gatekeeper and Notarization, which prevents you from running unsigned, untrusted apps. 3rd party Mac app developers must register with Apple to be an identified developer. They must submit their apps to Apple to be checked for malware. If Apple verifies that the software is free from malware, the app is signed by the developer and notarized by Apple to be safe to run on your Mac. If the app is changed in anyway, it won't match its signature with Apple, and will be blocked from running.
- XProtect, macOS's built-in antivirus that checks your Mac for infection whenever an app is first launched, whenever the app is change, and whenever XProtect's signatures are updated by Apple.
- Malware Removal Tool ("MRT"), macOS's built-in antimalware that checks for and removes malware whenever you restart your Mac or login to your user on your Mac.
Your Mac will check for XProtect and MRT updates every day, and Notarization updates are pushed to your Mac more frequently than that.
The best way to keep your Mac secure is to keep it up-to-date. To keep your Mac up-to-date, do the following:
- Apple menu () → System Preferences
- Click "Software Update"
- Check the box next to "Automatically keep my Mac up to date". Enter your computer password, if prompted.
- Click the "Advanced..." button. Check every box, then click the "OK" button.
For more detailed information, read Apple's instructions here: "Change Software Update preferences on Mac" on macOS User Guides
If you would like an extra layer of security, Bitdefender Virus Scanner is available for free in the Mac App Store (and is therefore endorsed as malware-free by Apple). You can run virus scans on your Mac, or on removable drives.