Technology

Can a Mac Get a Virus? Everything You Need to Know

<p style&equals;"text-align&colon; justify&semi;">Are you planning on <a href&equals;"https&colon;&sol;&sol;www&period;businessinsider&period;com&sol;a-surprising-number-of-windows-users-plan-to-switch-to-mac-2017-7" target&equals;"&lowbar;blank" rel&equals;"noopener">switching from Windows to Mac<&sol;a>&quest;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p style&equals;"text-align&colon; justify&semi;">With Macs being more competitive to Windows and the devices that support it&comma; more people are making the switch and use the underdog brand&period; Most find the new platform better-suited for them&comma; while others struggle with basics like software installation&period; This new wave of Mac users are even unaware of certain things and ask even the most basic questions&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p style&equals;"text-align&colon; justify&semi;">The most asked question is &&num;8220&semi;Can a Mac get a virus&quest;&&num;8221&semi; This is because of old claims from users of the earlier versions of Mac devices&period; While it&&num;8217&semi;s true to some degree that Macs are more resistant to malware&comma; it doesn&&num;8217&semi;t mean that it can&&num;8217&semi;t get infected&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p style&equals;"text-align&colon; justify&semi;">Read on to learn all you need to know about Mac and its anti-virus capabilities&period; Keep your device safe and free from any threatening data now&excl;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<h2>Can a Mac Get a Virus&quest;<&sol;h2>&NewLine;<p style&equals;"text-align&colon; justify&semi;"><a href&equals;"https&colon;&sol;&sol;setapp&period;com&sol;how-to&sol;check-your-mac-for-viruses" target&equals;"&lowbar;blank" rel&equals;"noopener">Do Macs get viruses<&sol;a>&quest; The short answer is yes&comma; Macs can get viruses&period; The only reason people think otherwise is that Apple is selective with the apps that it allows users to download&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p style&equals;"text-align&colon; justify&semi;">The company is thorough in screening all apps before they put it up for sale on the Apple App Store&period; The internet allows more people to download any software through different platforms&comma; though&period; Apple can&&num;8217&semi;t ensure the software&&num;8217&semi;s integrity if you download software this way&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p style&equals;"text-align&colon; justify&semi;">This is the main way for most viruses to get into your device&period; Once you install an infected program into your device&comma; the virus accesses your files and does what it&&num;8217&semi;s programmed to do&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p style&equals;"text-align&colon; justify&semi;">Viruses can also enter your device through ads&period; Some ads have malware riding along for when you click on them&period; This means that you need to be wary of any ad that you click on&comma; especially those from shady sites&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<h2>Viruses Macs Can Get<&sol;h2>&NewLine;<p style&equals;"text-align&colon; justify&semi;">There&&num;8217&semi;s not only one kind of virus that can infect your Mac&period; Here&&num;8217&semi;s a small list of the common viruses that can infect your Mac&period; These viruses do different things and enter your device through different means&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<h3 style&equals;"text-align&colon; justify&semi;">Adware<&sol;h3>&NewLine;<p style&equals;"text-align&colon; justify&semi;">This is the virus that rides often rides along with the ads that you see on different websites&period; These enter your Mac and mine your device for data to steal&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p style&equals;"text-align&colon; justify&semi;">It often uses this stolen data to bombard you with ads that you may find appealing&period; The thing is&comma; if you click on any of these ads&comma; it only introduces more adware to bombard you with&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p style&equals;"text-align&colon; justify&semi;">Some <a href&equals;"https&colon;&sol;&sol;newsforpublic&period;com&sol;remove-noad-variance-tv-adware&sol;">adware can be even more dangerous<&sol;a>&period; These will record any data that you come across on the internet and even the information you input on your device&period; This means your credit card numbers&comma; passwords&comma; and email addresses are all at risk of theft&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<h3 style&equals;"text-align&colon; justify&semi;">Trojan Horses<&sol;h3>&NewLine;<p style&equals;"text-align&colon; justify&semi;">The virus gets its name because it&&num;8217&semi;s often packaged along with an update for an app you have in your device&period; These can be the updates from any app you installed outside of the Apple App Store&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p style&equals;"text-align&colon; justify&semi;">These often got packaged in fake Flash updates&period; This is a major reason for the support for Adobe Flash to stop in most devices&period; Once the virus is in&comma; it will swipe your passwords and send them to the virus creator&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<h3 style&equals;"text-align&colon; justify&semi;">Ransomware<&sol;h3>&NewLine;<p style&equals;"text-align&colon; justify&semi;">This virus keeps evolving to become more threatening as time passes&period; At first&comma; ransomware could only lock you out of your computer&period; It would then tell you to send money into an anonymous account before it will unlock your device&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p style&equals;"text-align&colon; justify&semi;">You could attempt to unlock it without playing to their rules&comma; but it can mean the loss of all the data you had in your device before the ransomware took effect&period; Nowadays&comma; ransomware can access your device&&num;8217&semi;s features to find blackmail material&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p style&equals;"text-align&colon; justify&semi;">Some perform a <a href&equals;"https&colon;&sol;&sol;www&period;forbes&period;com&sol;sites&sol;zakdoffman&sol;2020&sol;02&sol;26&sol;simple-apple-security-hack-if-you-have-an-iphone-and-macbook-look-away-now&sol;&num;548a7b3eb232" target&equals;"&lowbar;blank" rel&equals;"noopener">simple hack<&sol;a> to steal important-looking data from your drives&period; Others will access your camera or microphone to gather blackmail material&period; They will then use those against you to get you to pay them&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<h2>Signs of Infection<&sol;h2>&NewLine;<p style&equals;"text-align&colon; justify&semi;">Can a Mac get a virus&quest; If so&comma; how can you tell&quest; Here are the telltale signs that your device has a virus moving around in your folders&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<h3 style&equals;"text-align&colon; justify&semi;">Ads and Pop-Ups<&sol;h3>&NewLine;<p style&equals;"text-align&colon; justify&semi;">Ads and pop-ups are obvious signs that some adware has attacked your device&period; This can be annoying for anyone who&&num;8217&semi;s working on their device&period; This is because these ads can still appear even if you&&num;8217&semi;re not using a browser&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p style&equals;"text-align&colon; justify&semi;">The adware forces ads to appear on your default desktop&comma; cluttering your home screen&period; Ads with misleading sizes and close buttons can even appear&period; This can force you to click on the ad itself&comma; allowing more adware to invade your Mac&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<h3 style&equals;"text-align&colon; justify&semi;">Slow-Running Devices<&sol;h3>&NewLine;<p style&equals;"text-align&colon; justify&semi;">The main problem with malicious software is that it consumes the processing power of your device&period; This means your Mac slows down and won&&num;8217&semi;t be able to run even the simplest of commands&period; It can also cause the spinning wheel of doom to appear more often than you&&num;8217&semi;re accustomed to&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<h2>How Macs Prevent Most Attacks<&sol;h2>&NewLine;<p style&equals;"text-align&colon; justify&semi;">Apple does well in helping its users prevent any viral attacks on their devices&period; The built-in malware protection that macOS has is a big part of your device&&num;8217&semi;s protection&period; This is because of the features it provides like the Gatekeeper function&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p style&equals;"text-align&colon; justify&semi;">It prevents any unapproved software from getting installed into your Mac&period; It will keep blocking it until you command the software to stop&period; XProtect also does the same thing&comma; but only prevents the program from running in your device&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p style&equals;"text-align&colon; justify&semi;">The built-in software also has a malware removal tool&period; It detects any known virus and deletes it from the device&&num;8217&semi;s drives&period; Each update that Apple releases will add new viruses to the removal tool&&num;8217&semi;s list&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p style&equals;"text-align&colon; justify&semi;">Keeping these active means you won&&num;8217&semi;t get to install much of the software that you want to use&period; It is the best way to keep your device free of malware&comma; though&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p style&equals;"text-align&colon; justify&semi;"><strong>Prevent Malware and Viruses from Attacking Your Mac Today<&sol;strong><&sol;p>&NewLine;<p style&equals;"text-align&colon; justify&semi;">Can a Mac get a virus&quest; Learn all you need to know about it and <a href&equals;"https&colon;&sol;&sol;newsforpublic&period;com&sol;cyber-security-important-modern-day-society&sol;">prevent the next attack<&sol;a> now&excl; Help your device stay safe and clean it up today&excl;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p style&equals;"text-align&colon; justify&semi;">Do you want to learn more about the security features of Apple devices&quest; New security threats pop-up every day and can be a big threat to your device&period; So&comma; keep yourself updated with our blogs and articles today&excl;<&sol;p>&NewLine;

Hardik Patel

Hardik Patel is a Digital Marketing Consultant and professional Blogger. He has 16+ years experience in SEO, SMO, SEM, Online reputation management, Affiliated Marketing and Content Marketing.

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