There are more & more Mac computers in use nowadays.There are several Mac users who are presently members of Wilders. More Mac users might visit & join Wilders if there were a forum that catered to their needs & interests. Wilders presently has a forum "all things UNIX." Please consider having one for Mac computers, as well.
There are a lot of Mac forums. Those forums are mainly geared to Mac software & hardware issues, as well as socializing among Mac aficionados. Security is a secondary concern in those forums. However, the number of Mac security issues has increased, & will continue to do so (please check out the links listed in THIS forum thread of Wilders). Yes, there are other security forums & there are other Mac forums. However, when I want discussions of security issues -- whether it be Windows, Linux, or macOS -- I trust the members & Mods here at Wilders. So I am hoping Wilders will see fit to establish a Mac forum, as they have done for Unix.
Well, the perception that there are increasingly more security issues for macOS is certainly true. How actual reality differs from the strategy of a cohesive ontology perpetrated by security and AV distributors remains to be seen. Doesn't the Unix forum include and incorporate macOS anyway? There are probably more people who run Ubuntu (or a flavour/derivative) than use macOS here.
Granted, macOS is fundamentally based on UNIX, as is Linux. However, check out the "all things UNIX" forum. The threads are all about Linux. There are no Mac threads there. Why? Because Linux & macOS are distinctly different operating systems, and Linux is open source whereas macOS is not. Thus, Mac users see the Unix forum as a Linux forum. Accordingly, Mac threads are scattered into several Wilders forums, thus lacking cohesion. I agree that many articles about Mac security are sourced by AV distributors. Are these distributors all fabricating &/or inflating their articles? I wonder. In any event, there are many articles about increased security threats to macOS that are originated by independent writers who are NOT employed by AV distributors. Two of those independent articles are linked in THIS Wilders thread, at links #2 & #4. I could easily provide several others. IMO, Wilders is THE singularly best security forum that users can find, be they fans of Windows, Linux, or Mac. Providing a more centralized & cohesive place for free & open discussions of the NEED (or lack of need) for Mac AVs & Firewalls, as well as security-smart computing habits for Mac users, is the very reason for requesting a Mac forum here at Wilders.
Fair do's. I've no doubt that there are security threats, I'm just not so sure about increased threats. There have, and always will be, security issues with any OS, I'm just not sure how endemic they are in relation to a properly updated macOS. It is the nature of writers (independent or otherwise) to express opinions and/or promulgate concerns, however tendentious. It's their raison d'ĂȘtre. I agree about Wilders being the best security forum on the net. I think a Mac forum could work. The six or seven of us on Wilders who actually use Mac's would probably appreciate it. Or just start a thread in 'All Things Unix' entitled 'Mac Security'.
Possibly, although to be honest, security isn't such a huge concern with Mac users (or Linux for that matter) as it is with the security nightmare that is Windows.
From what I read in the mac security topic (a quick 5 min read), if u only install apps from the app store, u should be safe. So why av?
I think only a minority of Mac users actually use an AV. There is stuff in the Apple repo, if you have a need for more security.
Fair point. Another possible reason there are no Mac threads there is no one has started one. After all the description states "discussion of UNIX related topics", MacOS would fit in that category. That said I'm good with a new forum for MacOS or at least rename "all things UNIX" to "all things UNIX (includes Mac)"
Which one what? By 'repo' I meant the Apple Store. I don't run anything (on macOS or Ubuntu) other than browser hardening. I don't trust AV's or anti-malware programs not to accidentally eviscerate my hard drive.
I am in that minority then... I have been running an AV since day one on a Mac (11 plus years now). Coming from the Windows world I guess it was just ingrained in me to run an AV. As I've said, I've never seen a performance hit and the cost is, I think, reasonable (for me at least).
I have large doubts about this. For the many unanswered threads I have started in the UNIX section due to what I expect were either nobody knows the answers or nobody cares to respond, I assume a dedicated Mac section here would be a few threads of "post your desktop!" or similar. A stickied thread or something, maybe. It is really difficult to start an in depth conversation on something that is not Windows.
Like I've said before, I thought the main benefit to running Linux or macOS was that you don't really need an AV. Waving goodbye to Windows and AV's is incredibly liberating.
Here's an interesting article about Mac's security system that was written a few years ago https://blog.malwarebytes.com/101/2019/02/macos-protect-malware/ Now with Big Sur it looks like Apple has improved its security on Mac's: https://www.apple.com/macos/security/
I ran MBAM on Windows years ago. All it ever found were my own system drivers. I became more scared of it than actual malware.