This question is often asked by people switching from Windows PCs to Macs. The usual procedure for Windows is (or should be) to install additional virus protection as one of the first activities. But everything is different with the Mac, is often said. Is virus protection really necessary here?

Most of the time the answer will be: No, a Mac does not need virus protection. The main reasons for this are:
- Apple uses an operating system based on UNIX. This has significantly larger and better security mechanisms than Windows (in return it is considerably more complicated and user-unfriendly). This makes it much more difficult to successfully carry out attacks and to place viruses and malware on the computer.
- The Apple operating system is automatically equipped with anti-virus software and a firewall. This program is called XProtect and works inconspicuously in the background without consuming a lot of resources.
- The Mac email program is also automatically provided with virus protection, which is primarily intended to protect against Trojans and phishing emails.
- Finally, it is often emphasized that Apple computers are simply not as widespread as Windows devices. It is simply not economically worthwhile to program special viruses for Macs if you can achieve a multiple of infections with the same effort on Windows computers.

However, if you work a step further into the matter, you can see that the Mac is not automatically perfectly protected against viruses. Yes - there are fewer viruses attacking a Mac than on Windows PCs, yes - the Mac has a preinstalled program and also: Yes, the UNIX-based operating system is more secure than Windows. Nevertheless, the following also applies here: The threat from viruses, malware and spyware is real, even on a Mac. No matter how few security holes the operating system may have - the majority of viruses and malware are downloaded to the computer by the user, and it does not matter whether it is a Mac or a Windows PC. And even if a pre-installed anti-virus software offers a certain level of protection, it will never be up-to-date like a specialized program, the developers of which work solely for this purpose and have decades of experience in this area.
Therefore it can be said: A Mac offers good basic protection, which is usually better than a Windows PC. However, even with a Mac, additional anti-virus protection should not be left out. However, due to the considerably lower threat, it is advisable to use so-called on-demand online virus scanners. These do not work in the background and therefore do not require any RAM, but also do not offer permanent protection, but only check the Mac for viruses and other harmful programs on request. However, if you want to protect your Mac as well as possible, an additional program should also be installed here, which in addition to different scan variants also has real-time protection and thus ensures permanent security.