80%Good protection; Bad performance
Sophos offers two access tiers to its Antivirus for Mac software. The free ‘Home’ version only gets you basic Mac protection and little else. The £59 ($80) ‘Premium’ might be more appealing to users who are serious about protecting their Mac – offering Ransomware; additional privacy; and access to live support. Find out more in our Sophos Antivirus for Mac review.
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Testing Explained
Sophos Antivirus For Mac Os X
Testing Mac Antivirus software is a split into four major sections. The first test is a regular malware detection test. Next, we measure the load AV software puts on a Mac’s performance. This is followed by a false positives test to make sure non-harmful files aren’t flagged as dangerous. The test is concluded with a Potentially Unwanted Applications test – PUAs are apps with excessive advertising, messaging or privacy policies. See AV-Test.org for more information.
Pricing
The pricing model Sophos Antivirus for Mac is competitive. The free tier (Home package – 3 Mac) will appeal to those looking for extra Mac security without the price tag. However, the footprint Sophos leaves on a Mac’s system load may be unacceptable to some (see below).
How to install Sophos Anti-Virus for Mac Notes: If installing via Apple Remote Desktop with UNIX commands, the command needs to be altered slightly sudo './Sophos Installer.app/Contents/MacOS/tools/InstallationDeployer' -install. How to install Sophos Anti-Virus for Mac Notes: If installing via Apple Remote Desktop with UNIX commands, the command needs to be altered slightly sudo './Sophos Installer.app/Contents/MacOS/tools/InstallationDeployer' -install. The Sophos firewall Mac boasts of a dual AV scanning engine that blocks viruses embedded in websites, in email attachments, and in file downloads too. Sophos blocks these harmful pieces of code at the gateway before they can access your computer and attack it.
The £59 ($80) Premium, for up to 10 Macs, package will be more attractive to users looking for complete peace-of-mind. Offing Mac protection against Ransomware and additional protection that alerts users when their webcam or microphone is accessed. This is a timely feature in light of the recent NSA revelations. Finally, the premium package gives customers access to live chat/email support – although this supports isn’t 24/7, instead it’s open Monday to Friday from 8am-8pm ET (not ideal for UK users).
Protection & Performance
It’s a perfect malware-detection score for Sophos Home and Premium. It detected 100% of the malware is was subjected to in tests. This puts it alongside its Best Mac Antivirus rivals.
Its performance score is less impressive. During tests – where 27.28 GB of files were copied to a Mac – Sophos added 12 seconds to the “clean” Mac’s base time of 147 seconds. This translates into a 7.8% tax on the system load, which is unacceptable. Norton Security for Mac returned the best performance results here, adding only 0.5%.
Sophos did better when measuring the impact its software had on a download, speed test. Adding only one second to the clean Mac’s base time of 56 seconds.
Sophos did better when measuring the impact its software had on a download, speed test. Adding only one second to the clean Mac’s base time of 56 seconds.
Potentially Unwanted Apps & False Positives
Sophos scored well in the remaining two tests. The first was a simple test to examine how the software treated safe but unknown files. The unsophisticated antivirus software could identify these clean files as harmful, returning a “False Positive” results. Which is unacceptable for users. The Sophos Home and Premium Antivirus for Mac software returned a perfect score here.
Potentially Unwanted Apps (PUAs) aren’t considered malicious, but they are “unwanted” by most Mac users. PUAs could be a widget that’s installed to your browser or a desktop app that runs in the background collecting data. A PUA is any software with high levels of unwanted advertising, messaging or poor privacy policy.
The good news here is that Sophos Home and Premium filtered out over 98% of the 700 PUAs it was exposed to during testing. An impressive score.
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Verdict
Sophos Antivirus For Mac Os X Uninstaller
![Free sophos for mac Free sophos for mac](/uploads/1/3/4/0/134042614/956511396.png)
Sophos Home for Mac is a good option for anyone on a budget looking for an extra level of Security. The Premium package goes a step further again, offering protection against Ransomware and the hijacking of a webcam/microphone. Both features will be high on a security/privacy conscious Mac user’s wish list. The software is let down by its high impact on the system load. 8% will be too high of a price for most customers.
Rating | ||||||
Price | £24.99; $49.99 | £39.99; $19.99 | £39.99; $39.99 Google map download for window phone. | £69.99; $69.99 | £39.99; $39.99 | £23.99; $35.95 |
Firewall | ✔ | ✔ | ✘ | ✘ | ✘ | ✘ |
Malicious URL | ✔ | ✔ | ✔ | ✔ | ✔ | ✘ |
Phishing Protection | ✔ | ✔ | ✔ | ✔ | ✔ | |
Parental Control | ✘ | ✔ | ✔ | ✔ | ✘ | ✘ |
Threats Detected | 100% | 100% | 100% | 100% | Flight sim x for mac. 99% | ✘ |
Performance | Games for the macbook pro free download. 0.5% | 1.5% | Best hard disk tool for mac. 4% | 10% | 5% | ✘ |
Sophos Antivirus For Mac
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