Product Review: Mac Security ‐ July/August 2014 www.av-comparatives.org Mac Security Test & Review Mac Security Test & Review Language: English July/August 2014 Last revision: 29th August 2014 www.av-comparatives.
Product Review: Mac Security ‐ July/August 2014 www.av-comparatives.org Contents Introduction: Macs and Security Software .................... 3 Review of Security Software for OS X 10.9 Mavericks ...... 4 Malware Protection Test ............................................ 6 avast! Free Antivirus for Mac ..................................... 8 Avira Free Antivirus for Mac ..................................... 11 Bitdefender Antivirus for Mac .................................. 14 ESET Cyber Security Pro..
Product Review: Mac Security ‐ July/August 2014 www.av-comparatives.org Introduction: Macs and Security Software In January 2014, ZDNet1 and other sourcres reported the existence of cross-platform botnet software that installs by exploiting a vulnerability in Java SE 7 Update 21 and earlier. It can infect Windows, Linux and Mac OS X computers running the affected Java versions.
Product Review: Mac Security ‐ July/August 2014 www.av-comparatives.org Review of Security Software for OS X 10.9 Mavericks We have reviewed and tested the following products for this report, using the newest version available in July 2014: • • • • • • • • avast! Free Antivirus for Mac 9.0.42061 AVIRA Free Antivirus for Mac 2.0.5.100 Bitdefender Antivirus for Mac 3.1.8203 ESET Cyber Security Pro 6.0.13.0 Intego Mac Premium Bundle X8 10.8.2 Kaspersky Internet Security for Mac 14.0.1.
Product Review: Mac Security ‐ July/August 2014 www.av-comparatives.org Review format Here we have outlined the features and functionality that we have looked at for each program in this review: Additional features Any of the program’s features other than malware protection, such as a firewall or phishing protection, are listed Installation We note any options or points of particular interest encountered during the setup process.
Product Review: Mac Security ‐ July/August 2014 www.av-comparatives.org Malware Protection Test In addition to the interface review described above, we have also conducted malware protection tests to see how effectively the Mac security products protect the system against malware. For this test, we used 65 recent and prevalent samples of Mac malware that are not blocked by Mac OS X Mavericks itself. All are distinctly malicious, functioning programs and were seen in-the-field in 2014.
Product Review: Mac Security ‐ July/August 2014 www.av-comparatives.
Product Review: Mac Security ‐ July/August 2014 www.av-comparatives.org avast! Free Antivirus for Mac The installation process is very simple, with the only option being to install Google Chrome as an additional browser. The program can be uninstalled using the Uninstall avast! Item in the avast! menu. File System/Mail/Web Shields, but does not provide any configuration options. Once a scan has been run, an additional menu item, Reports, appears between Scan and Virus Chest.
Product Review: Mac Security ‐ July/August 2014 www.av-comparatives.org Finder context menu Scanning avast! adds a scan entry to the Finder context menu, so that drives, folders and files can be scanned by right-clicking on them. The Scan item in the left-hand menu panel provides the options Full Scan, Removable Volumes Scan, and Custom Scan. The latter allows particular folders or files to be selected for scanning. We could not find a quick scan or means of scheduling a scan.
Product Review: Mac Security ‐ July/August 2014 www.av-comparatives.org feature, which shows the user where to find the search item in the menus: Again, this persists until the user clicks on it. When a flash drive is scanned, malware found is displayed in a list, with options to quarantine (“Chest”) or delete the items: The support section of the avast! website (which has to be accessed manually) has a support section for avast! Free Antivirus for Mac.
Product Review: Mac Security ‐ July/August 2014 www.av-comparatives.org Avira Free Antivirus for Mac Avira-Uninstall Applications\Utilities. Installation We note that the Avira website provides a hint for non-expert users as to what to do when the download is complete: program in Main window Status, scans, update, quarantine and logs are all accessible from the home page. As the product is free, subscription information is not applicable.
Product Review: Mac Security ‐ July/August 2014 www.av-comparatives.org Finally, Avira’s system tray icon changes from an open umbrella to a closed one. We feel that Avira Free Antivirus for Mac warns very clearly in the event that protection is disabled, and makes it very easy to rectify the situation. We feel this is a very effective way of making the program suitable for both expert and nonexpert users.
Product Review: Mac Security ‐ July/August 2014 www.av-comparatives.org The pop-up alert seems rather uninformative to us; we suggest “Malware deleted” would be clearer. In any event, the alert disappears so quickly that most users will not have time to read it. However, with regard to the scan, quarantining all items detected as malware strikes us as ideal for inexperienced users, as there are no decisions to be made and no chance of making a mistake.
Product Review: Mac Security ‐ July/August 2014 www.av-comparatives.org Bitdefender Antivirus for Mac Additional features Main window Web filter, phishing protection for Safari, Chrome and Firefox. Status is shown in the top pane of the window. Three buttons below start different scans: Full, Custom and Critical Locations. Subscription information is shown in the form of number of days remaining, and can be found at the bottom of the window.
Product Review: Mac Security ‐ July/August 2014 www.av-comparatives.org The vendor informs us that they are planning to optimise the icon in order to make it more recognisable. Settings, quarantine and logs Preferences and History (=logs) can be found in the Antivirus for Mac menu, while quarantine is located in the Actions menu.
Product Review: Mac Security ‐ July/August 2014 www.av-comparatives.org Bitdefender have let us know that because of the way OS X works, deleting a file without deleting all references to it in the system (made by the malware itself) may cause the OS to hang. They are working on a means of automatic cleaning.
Product Review: Mac Security ‐ July/August 2014 www.av-comparatives.org Verdict Bitdefender Antivirus for Mac combines very good malware detection with a largely very straightforward interface, but may have difficulty removing the malware detected. The program interface is largely very well designed and makes important information and tasks easy to access. Help facilities are excellent. Our one concern is that the program appears to be unable to remove many inactive malware samples from a flash drive.
Product Review: Mac Security ‐ July/August 2014 www.av-comparatives.org ESET Cyber Security Pro The software can be uninstalled by rerunning the setup process from the original media, or locating the uninstaller in Finder. Both methods are described in the User Guide. Additional features Phishing protection, parental control, firewall Installation At the start of the installation process, the setup wizard displays the system requirements.
Product Review: Mac Security ‐ July/August 2014 www.av-comparatives.org Scanning Clicking Computer Scan in the left-hand panel of the window opens a range of scanning options, including quick, full, custom and scheduled scans: Settings, quarantine and logs Finder context menu Settings are accessed by clicking Setup in the left-hand panel of the window; the Tools item just below this provides access to quarantine and logs.
Product Review: Mac Security ‐ July/August 2014 www.av-comparatives.org When a flash drive containing malware is scanned, the results are presented thus: Both documents have been produced to a very high standard and are illustrated with screenshots. Additionally, there is an online knowledge base on the ESET website.
Product Review: Mac Security ‐ July/August 2014 www.av-comparatives.org Intego Mac Premium Bundle X8 available as a standalone program or with any of the other suites. Additional features In addition to antivirus, the Intego Mac Premium Bundle X8 includes a firewall, parental controls, system optimisation, and backup.
Product Review: Mac Security ‐ July/August 2014 www.av-comparatives.org We feel this is a very simple but effective way of explaining the program’s controls. The software can be uninstalled by deauthorizing from the program’s main menu in the Mac menu bar, and then downloading and running the latest installer package, which has an Uninstall option. This is described in the online knowledge base.
Product Review: Mac Security ‐ July/August 2014 www.av-comparatives.org When we attempted to update VirusBarrier (the antivirus component), we were met with the following prompt from NetBarrier, which asked whether to allow access to the Internet for the update process: We found Virus Barrier’s main window to be clear and well laid-out, but we would like to see an easy means of finding out when the current subscription expires.
Product Review: Mac Security ‐ July/August 2014 www.av-comparatives.org When a full scan of a flash drive containing malware is run, the following dialog box is displayed: Scanning Full, quick and scheduled scans can be run using their respective buttons in the main program window. Custom scans are accomplished by dragging a drive, folder or file to the graphic of the Mac in the centre of the window.
Product Review: Mac Security ‐ July/August 2014 www.av-comparatives.org Verdict Intego VirusBarrier provides outstanding protection against Mac malware, and would be an ideal program for experienced Mac users. The current version does not provide very effective detection of Windows malware, though, and we have also noted a number of areas in the user interface which we feel are not ideal for non-expert users.
Product Review: Mac Security ‐ July/August 2014 www.av-comparatives.org Kaspersky Internet Security for Mac Additional features Mac menu bar Phishing protection; web filter; parental control Kaspersky Lab inform us that the version 15 of the software, due for release in October 2014, will also include their “SafeMoney” feature, the purpose of which is to ensure secure online banking transactions.
Product Review: Mac Security ‐ July/August 2014 www.av-comparatives.org Maintenance Updates can be run by clicking the uppermost of the three symbols to the right of the big button. If real-time protection is turned off, the status display changes accordingly: We note that the Allow button is just as big and prominent as the Block button, although we are informed by Kaspersky Lab that this will be changed in an upcoming release.
Product Review: Mac Security ‐ July/August 2014 www.av-comparatives.org Additionally, there is a knowledge base on the Kaspersky Lab website. This provides extensive answers to FAQs, well-illustrated with annotated screenshots. We would describe the help facilities for Kaspersky Internet Security as excellent. Malware protection test Mac malware detected: 97% False positives: 0 Windows malware detected: 100% Help Clicking “Kaspersky Internet Security Help” in the Help menu opens the local help service.
Product Review: Mac Security ‐ July/August 2014 www.av-comparatives.org Kromtech MacKeeper Clicking this displays hardware information about the computer, such as memory and CPU, but nothing about the files or folders being examined: Additional features Anti-theft; shredder. system optimisation; backup; Installation The installation process itself is very simple, with the only option being the hard disk to install to.
Product Review: Mac Security ‐ July/August 2014 www.av-comparatives.org We note that even after installation of MacKeeper, the hard disk of our Mac still had 488.87 of 499.25 GB free. When we logged on with a non-administrator account as part of the test, we found that we had to run the scan again and sign in again. We were surprised to see that the computer has to be scanned, and the program activated, for each individual user.
Product Review: Mac Security ‐ July/August 2014 www.av-comparatives.org Status may be identified as “Aggravated” or even “Serious”.
Product Review: Mac Security ‐ July/August 2014 www.av-comparatives.org Verdict Kromtech MacKeeper has a usable interface and good Windows malware detection, but is not very effective at detecting Mac malware. Not everyone may agree with the program’s initial analysis of their system. The program’s user interface is essentially straightforward, although real-time protection is not regarded as essential.
Product Review: Mac Security ‐ July/August 2014 www.av-comparatives.org Sophos Antivirus for Mac Phishing protection which can be used to run updates and scans, change preferences, and view quarantine. Installation Finder context menu The first page of the installer informs the user how to find help, and how to uninstall the product. The only option is which hard disk to install the product to.
Product Review: Mac Security ‐ July/August 2014 www.av-comparatives.org Scanning Full and custom scans can be run from the Scans window. There is no quick scan or scheduled scan available. Settings, quarantine and logs Preferences and Quarantine Manager are available from the Sophos System Tray icon. Logs can be found by opening Scans, and right-clicking on the type of scan (Full or Custom); the shortcut menu contains the item “View Scan Log”.
Product Review: Mac Security ‐ July/August 2014 www.av-comparatives.org We found the knowledge base articles to be very clear and comprehensive, and very well illustrated with screenshots. We would describe Sophos’ help overall as good. Verdict Sophos Antivirus for Mac is extremely effective at protecting against Mac malware, and also at detecting Windows threats. We feel the program’s minimalist user interface would be fine for experienced Mac users who have some understanding of antivirus software.
Product Review: Mac Security ‐ July/August 2014 www.av-comparatives.org Summary Seven of the products we have reviewed receive our Approved Security Product award. Unfortunately, we were unable to give Kromtech MacKeeper an award, due to limited Mac malware protection and puzzling system analysis6. The test covers protection against Mac malware and detection of Windows malware, while the review looks at ease of use and help functions.
Featurelist Mac (as of August 2014) Product name: Supported OS X versions: Supported Program languages: FREE FREE COMMERCIAL COMMERCIAL COMMERCIAL ESET Cyber Security Pro Intego Mac Premium Bundle 10.7 and up 10.6 and up 10.
Product Review: Mac Security ‐ July/August 2014 www.av-comparatives.org Copyright and Disclaimer This publication is Copyright © 2014 by AV-Comparatives ®. Any use of the results, etc. in whole or in part, is ONLY permitted after the explicit written agreement of the management board of AVComparatives, prior to any publication.
