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Hackers are always looking for security holes so that they can install malware on your computer, and they’re constantly creating new malware in an attempt to keep ahead of the antivirus software designed to defend your data. This means that an antivirus program for your laptop is crucial to the safety of your data. 

**What to look for in antivirus software for laptops**

In order to avoid potential issues and clashes between different antivirus software, it’s best to commit to a single antivirus program. Of course, to do this you’ll want to know which antivirus is best for laptops. Below is a list of the qualities and features that comprise the best antivirus software:

**High malware detection rate**: Look for a malware detection rate of at least 95%. It should be able to detect previously known malware and zero-day malware, without an accompanying high rate of false positives (when benign software is mistakenly identified as a threat).

**A light system load**: The antivirus software shouldn’t noticeably slow down your laptop whether it’s running in the background or actively scanning.

**Friendly user interface and installation**: Most users prefer to just install their antivirus software and forget about it, but if you’re the type that likes to have a more hands-on approach, make sure your software’s UI is friendly.

![](https://cms.reasonlabs.com/cdn/shutterstock_691165771.jpg)

**Top-quality support**: Hopefully, you’ll never need it, but if you do, you want software with a stellar support reputation and one that’s available 24/7.

**Multilayer protection**: Today’s antivirus software should be able to stop cyber attacks on different levels. This means having multilayer protection that includes signature-based detection, heuristics-based detection, behaviour detection, and cloud-based detection. 

**A password manager:** Password managers can bolster your online security because they store your passwords in an encrypted format and the passwords can only be accessed via a master password. Some password managers can also help generate complex passwords.

**Real-time cyber protection**: Your laptop should be perpetually monitored for malware and viruses so your protection needs to be in real-time and always active, checking when files are created, opened, or copied. 

**24/7 email support**:  Your antivirus should also automatically screen emails before they’ve been open, provide phishing protection, and check websites before you load them.

**Safe browsing technology**: Secure browsing technology filters out potentially harmful Google search results and warns you when you click on a malicious page.

**Webcam protection and family protection features**: Hackers should be prevented from accessing your camera and children should be protected from inappropriate content.

**Anti-theft protection**: Another important feature is anti-theft protection. This feature should let you remotely lock and locate your laptop, as well as remove your personal data.

**An extra precaution to take to protect your laptop**

Because most modern laptops use Thunderbolt input/output ports for peripherals, laptops are particularly vulnerable to hackers who use the peripherals to take control of the laptop and breach the data it contains. The best way to protect against this type of attack is to use input-output memory management units (IOMMUs). OMMUs can restrict a peripheral’s access to “non-sensitive” areas of computer memory and thereby prevent it from accessing sensitive data on the laptop.

**A final note:**

Always remember to enable the automatic updates of your antivirus software. This is essential to keeping your data secure. The updates are what make it possible for the anti-virus to identify and neutralize the latest threats.

For a very long time, it was widely promulgated that Apple computers didn’t get infected with viruses or malware, but that school of thought has been fairly well debunked. While it’s true that Macs have historically been more robust against malware and virus infections than Microsoft systems, they have by no means been immune to them. In fact, the main reason that Macs suffered fewer malware infections was simply that they were less targeted by hackers. Yet, that just makes them safer, not necessarily more secure. Moreover, that status is changing as there has been a rapid rise in the number of cyber attacks targeting Mac systems: WatchGuard Technologies recently announced that two of the 10 most popular attacks for the first quarter of 2019 were developed for the Mac operating system. So what kind of protection do Macs have? What antivirus does Apple use? Is it different from Microsoft systems?

Security technology for Apple differs from Microsoft in a couple ways. First, Apple uses Gatekeeper, an Apple technology designed to protect users from malicious apps by allowing them to limit installations to just those from the App stores, but Gatekeeper doesn’t provide foolproof protection as it has its own vulnerabilities that hackers have learned to exploit. Second, Apple has a basic signature-based detection tool called XProtect that warns users if they’ve downloaded something that Apple thinks might be dangerous, but XProtect is rudimentary at best and doesn’t use the latest detection technologies or even a sufficiently large virus-signature database. Apple also has its own malware removal tool for deleting malicious files already on your Mac, but this technology tends towards high CPU usage, which will slow down your system. Another major difference in security technology is that on the Mac, all apps are sandboxed so that they’re only permitted to do exactly what they are supposed to and are prevented from accessing the system’s infrastructure and settings. However, all of these technologies have their own vulnerabilities and they have been and can be exploited. In short, the Mac’s defenses aren’t as comprehensive as they need to be, which is why responsible Mac users install antivirus (AV) solutions on their systems.

At the end of the day, Apple systems have the same security needs as Microsoft systems.  
Like Microsoft, Apple needs an antivirus solution that offers 24/7, real-time scanning to detect and remove or quarantine malware as well as advanced detection methods like behavioral and heuristic technologies to detect zero-day threats. And like Microsoft systems, Apple systems need an AV solution that provides protection from ransomware, malicious URLs, phishing, tracking, PUPs and more. Finally, Apple has the same options as Microsoft since most major AV companies offer security software for both Microsoft and Apple. Thus, even though Microsoft and Mac systems use entirely different architecture, they do use essentially the same antivirus solutions.

![](https://cms.reasonlabs.com/cdn/shutterstock_245826340-e1578921096826.jpg)

For a very long time, it was widely promulgated that Apple computers didn’t get infected…

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