The question in the title is quite frequently asked by the users who decide to switch their computer from Windows based to Mac. And the cast majority of them is certain that they don’t need any virus or malware protection anymore, because Macs are supposed to be virus-free. There are no viruses for Macs and even if there were, OS X is made so secure that they don’t stand a chance. But is this really the case? Or would it be wise to transfer some of your Windows virus protection attitude to your new Mac?
Running Windows VM on Mac
Do you have any programs and tools that you couldn’t live without on Windows and you can’t run them on your new Mac? Don’t worry there is a solution, run Windows as a VM or as dual boot.
But you already guessed what this means – if you run Windows on your Mac, you should probably have virus protection for Windows so you don’t get into trouble. Does this means that you need virus protection for your Mac too? Let me put it this way – if your OS X somehow gets infected and that Trojan or malware or whatever it is that you got on your computer spreads over to the Windows partition, you may have a problem. If it infects the OS X already than there is no further justification of why you should have antivirus for your Mac necessary.
Peace of mind for old Windows users
This is a psychological issue. If you were a Windows user for many years, you are probably well aware of the fact that if you don’t have your antivirus up to date, your computer will sooner or later die in agony. Which actually can happen – you may lose your data, send out tons of spam to your contacts and even unwillingly share some of the personal data with the makers of the virus.
You have been told that there is no such threats on a Mac. But can you be absolutely positive you will never ever get infected and have serious problems with that? I’m sorry to say that nothing is 100 percent. If you are a converted Windows user you may sleep better at night if you actually have some virus protection running on your new Mac, knowing that a chance to get infected just got even much smaller.