Free AV recommendations for student use

[MikaelDez]

Hey everyone,

We've been offering McAfee to our students when they request AV, but apparently we're losing that option this December, from what my security team has told me. I'm being asked to research a free AV solution for Macs for our students (I think if we're offering AV we should be providing a paid solution, not pointing to some free option considering the amount of money they pay to attend school, but that's just my opinion). That being said, does anyone have experience with a free macOS AV that they would recommend?

Thanks,

Mike

[ericbenfer]

XProtect – https://support.apple.com/guide/security/protecting-against-malware-sec469d47bd8/web

[boberito]

Is this a 1 to 1 program or a BYOD? Because if it's a 1 to 1 I'd recommended the students not being admins and then the built in protections in macOS would probably be enough.

If it's a BYOD, again what's built into macOS may be good enough or on par with other free solutions. 

Otherwise you basically get what you pay for...there are no good free solutions really

[scottb]

FWIW, I put free MalwareBytes on my family Macs...it's not a full AV by any stretch, but I think it's a good thing to use - at least I've never seen any negatives having it there.

MalwareBytes - use the free download button... 

[jcarr · Accepted solution]

I'll echo what @ericbenfer said.  If Gatekeeper, XProtect and SIP are good enough for IBM...

Protecting against malware in macOS 

[scottb]

I agree with @jcarr et al, but often that's not enough for the sec folks... less is better if you can get away with it.  Can't tell you how much time is spent on problems with many macOS AV programs...

[ericbenfer]

Often it really comes down to getting visibility into what is happening on the Mac systems.

Jamf Protect will give you that telemetry. https://www.jamf.com/products/jamf-protect/

[MikaelDez]

Thanks everyone - I agree with all of your points and I've already defended XProtect, SIP and Gatekeeper. It's just politics on their part to have a policy in case something were to happen, that we offered at least advice to the student. Turns out we're going to recommend the free version of Sophos Home and Malwarebytes if there needs to be some damage control. 

[scottb]

Just started using MS Defender at one client, but no opinions on it yet...would like to know what folks think of jamf-protect... @ericbenfer ?

[ericbenfer]

To be clear Jamf Protect is not a free solution. 😉

I like that Jamf Protect utilizes and reports on what is built into macOS.