The iPad is a capable device for both art and productivity, but it becomes a stronger proposition in both areas if you have a good stylus to hand.

Whether you’re sketching a new building design, taking notes during a work meeting or designing graphics, a stylus is a gamechanger. But with so many to choose from in just about every shape and size, which is the best for your needs? Everyone has heard of the Apple Pencil, but there are plenty of great alternatives that cost a fraction of the price. 

Here are the best iPad styluses available right now.

Updated June 29 to add Adonit Log Stylus

Apple Pencil (2nd generation) – Best overall

Best Prices Today:



$17.99 at Best Buy$129.00 at Adorama$129.00 at Apple

The Apple Pencil is an obvious choice, what isn’t quite so obvious is which Apple Pencil you should choose. There are two Apple Pencils. The Apple Pencil 1st generation is still on sale despite launching in 2015 and there is an Apple Pencil 2nd generation, which launched in 2018. The first generation Apple Pencil, which features later in this round-up, works with the current 9th and 10th generation iPads as well as a number of older iPad models. The second generation Apple Pencil, works with the 12.9in iPad Pro (3rd gen up), 11in iPad Pro (1st gen up), iPad Air (4th gen up) and iPad mini (6th gen).

When we reviewed the Apple Pencil 2nd gen back in 2018 we gave it 5 stars. It’s shorter than the original and Apple has given the 2nd gen Pencil a flat edge you can tap to trigger app-specific functions. This actually makes Apple’s stylus easier to hold and it stops it rolling off your desk. The 2nd gen Pencil is also magnetically attachable to the iPad, which also helps with the rolling.

Another major change is that the 2018 Pencil has no Lightning connector for charging, instead, it charges wirelessly when connected to the iPad, which is much neater. The 2nd gen Pencil is matt white rather than the glossy white of the original (which could be a bit dazzling). You can also tell the two apart because the original had a metallic ring next to the charging cap.

Both the 1st and 2nd generation Apple Pencils are equally responsive and pressure-sensitive. You can tilt the stylus to create different textures, making it a great tool for handwriting, sketching, note-taking and illustration.

Read our full

Apple Pencil (2nd generation) review

Adonit Star

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$49.99 at Adonit$49.99 at Amazon

If you want something that feels more like a real pen, a fountain pen at that, then the Adonit Star will be a breath of fresh air. The classic design is reminiscent of a Mont Blanc, but without some of the bulk and most of the price. Popping off the cap reveals a fountain-pen style nib, replete with the ink feed on the back, but on closer inspection, you’ll see that the metal cuts off early, with a black rubber 1mm fine tip being what will actually touch the screen.

As you might expect, the Star is very much intended for those who want to make notes and generally just write on their iPad. It doesn’t have pressure sensitivity, so you can’t have thicker or thinner strokes depending on how hard you press, which would rule it out for most artists. That’s fine though, there’s the Apple Pencil for that. Instead, you get a balanced and very comfortable writing experience, aided in no small measure by Adonit’s excellent palm cancellation feature.

Pairing is simply a matter of pressing the small button on the Star, then when the blue light comes on you should be good to go. If it starts flashing red, this means it is time for a recharge, so unscrew the bottom of the pen and there’s a USB-C port. The Star takes around an hour to charge and will then work happily for around 10 hours or so.

Adonit has come up with something genuinely unique in the Star. Classy looking, nice to write with, and it will definitely get some looks when you pull it out in a meeting to make notes. If there’s such a thing as a Stylus connoisseur, then you can bet that the Adonit Star would be a prizes part of their collection. 

Zagg Pro Stylus

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$49.87 at Amazon$53.99 at Best Buy

The Zagg Pro Stylus allows users to take precise and quick notes, sketch, mark up documents and more.

It features a capacitive rear tip for quick and easy scrolling and an active tip for smooth, crisp strokes. A tilt detection system also allows you to create thick or thin lines.

This stylus connects automatically and is compatible with all apps that support the Apple Pencil.

It’s compatible with the iPad (6-9th gen), iPad mini (5th gen), 11in iPad Pro (1-3rd gen), 12.9in iPad Pro (3-5th Gen), iPad Air (4-5th gen).

Apple Pencil (1st generation) – Best for older iPads

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$6.49 at Best Buy$99.00 at Adorama$99.00 at Apple

The second generation Apple Pencil features earlier this round-up, but we still recommend the first generation Apple Pencil, which is still on sale. The older Apple Pencil works with the current 9th and 10th generation iPads as well as a number of older iPad models including the 6th generation iPad and later, the iPad Air (3rd gen), iPad mini (5th gen) and the original iPad Pro (1st and 2nd gen). If those are the iPads you have that this is the Apple Pencil for you. Unsure: check which iPads work with which Apple Pencil. We compare the two generations of Apple Pencil in Apple Pencil (2018) vs Apple Pencil (2015).

One benefit of the older Apple Pencil, assuming it works with your iPad, is that it is cheaper than the second-generation version at $99/£109 rather than $129/£139.

The original Apple Pencil is almost entirely white, with just a metallic band at the non-writing end by the charging cap. This cap conceals a Lightning port for charging and syncing. When you want to charge the Pencil you can just plug it into the iPad’s Lightning port or use an adapter if your iPad has a USB-C port (as is the case with the iPad 10th gen). There is a downside to charging this way: you can’t use the Pencil while it is charging and it looks pretty ridiculous. Here’s how to check the Apple Pencil’s battery percentage.

The Pencil feels pretty good in the hand, with a nice weight to it. The Apple Pencil and compatible iPads have sensors that can detect the pressure you’re using and the angle you’re holding the stylus at, making it effortless to create lines of different thicknesses. In the Pencil’s tip there are two tilt sensors which the iPad’s display will keep track of to work out the exact orientation and angle of your hands as you draw. For example, you can use the side of the Pencil’s tip for realistic shading like you would with a real pencil lead. The Apple Pencil knows to ignore the wrist and palm

You get a spare tip in the box, but it’s identical to the one that comes attached to the Pencil.

Read our full

Apple Pencil (1st generation) review

Adonit Log

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$39.99 at Amazon

A stylus bearing the name Log might conjure up ideas of a heavy, cumbersome digital pen, but that couldn’t be further from the truth. Adonit uses the name to bring attention not only to the tree-born casing of the stylus, but also because each one is made from sustainable wood. This means the grain pattern in every Log is unique, which makes a nice change from the identical plastic that adorns most styli. 

In the hand, the Log is light and very comfortable to use, with a matte finish that still provides enough grip for accurate writing. It’s light too, at only 13g, making a mockery of its name once more.

At one end of the wooden casing you’ll find a USB-C charging port, while the other is home to the 1mm tip. The latter is also replaceable, with new nibs available from Adonit for around $15/£15. This means the Log can be kept in good working condition for a long time, which is in keeping with its sustainability motif.

To pair the Log, simply tap the slim button on its side. When the blue light comes on,  it automatically connects to the iPad and you’re good to go. It’s not even Bluetooth, so I suspect Adonit is using witchcraft of some sort.

Writing is very smooth, with the tip sliding easily across the display and producing no notable delay or judders that can affect other styluses. I found it excellent for note-taking, even over long sessions as the light frame and consistent performance meant I forgot about the Log and just got on with my writing. Adonit’s palm rejection technology also means that you can happily lean your hand on the iPad display without extraneous characters appearing in the document or other weirdness.

You don’t get the pressure sensitivity found on the Apple Pencil, so you can’t create thicker and thinner lines by pressing harder or softer, which rules it out for those who want to create digital art on their iPad.

Battery life is great, with a one-hour charge resulting in around 24 hours of use. Should you not want to wait that long, then pop it on charge for about five minutes and you’ll be able to write for an hour. 

If you’re after a simple stylus for jotting things down and navigating through the iPad interface, then you can’t go wrong with the Adonit Log. 

Logitech Crayon

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$68.99 at Best Buy$69.95 at Apple$69.99 at Adorama

While the Logitech Crayon was originally framed as an education tool, the cheap Apple Pencil alternative is now available to anybody that wants it. 

In many ways, the Crayon functions in the same way as the Apple Pencil, complete with easy pairing, reliable palm rejection and tilt support, but there’s one big omission: there’s no pressure sensitivity available here. That’s likely to be a dealbreaker for graphic designers, but if you’re only looking to use a stylus for note-taking, you’re unlikely to notice a difference in performance.

You’ve also got a seven-hour battery life on offer, which should be more than enough for the majority of consumers, and it’s charged up via a hidden Lightning port. That’s not quite as premium as the wireless charging from the second-gen Apple Pencil, but it’s certainly better than the original Apple Pencil.

It’s compatible with the iPad (6-10th gen), iPad mini (5-6th gen), 11in iPad Pro (1-4th gen), 12.9in iPad Pro (3-6th Gen), iPad Air (3-5th gen).

Bargains Depot B&D 2-in-1 Stylus

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$6.99 at Amazon

The B&D Stylus is a bargain at under a tenner.

It’s made fully of aluminum and comes with twenty extra rubber tips in two different sizes so you can adjust the accuracy of lines. It’s dual tipped too, so you can use a different size on either end.

There is no need for Bluetooth or charging with this stylus.

The B&D Stylus is compatible with all iPads, iPhones, and other touchscreen devices.

Meko Capacitive Stylus Pen

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$12.95 at Amazon

The Meko stylus can be used for note-taking, drawing, writing, and basic selection and navigation – and like the B&D option, it is also made of aluminum without any plastic parts. It uses a disc tip like a few other options in this list.

For an affordable price, you get two Meko styli, two fibre tips, and four replacement disc tips.

Apple Inc, Computer Accessories, iPad

Do Macs get viruses? Do Macs need antivirus software? The answers to these questions aren’t as simple as they might seem. In this article, we look at the dangers faced by Mac users, and the pros and cons of using Mac antivirus software.

Historically, the Mac has been considered safe and secure for a number of reasons that we will go into below, but in recent years the consensus has fluctuated. In its 2020 State of Malware report, Malwarebytes said it saw “a significant rise in the overall prevalence of Mac threats in 2019, with an increase of over 400 percent from 2018.” The following year, the company found that overall malware detected on macOS decreased by 38 percent but that the worst kind, namely “backdoors, data stealers, and cryptocurrency stealers/miners,” increased by more than 61 percent.

One reason for the decline in 2020 was the pandemic; as restrictions were lifted, malware saw a resurgence in 2021, with the number of Mac detections soaring by more than 200 percent to an astonishing 164 million. Even Apple software boss Craig Federighi acknowledged in May 2021 that Mac malware was a problem… although it’s worth bearing in mind that at the time he was trying to make the case for iOS’s very different approach to security. “Today,” he said, “we have a level of malware on the Mac that we don’t find acceptable.” Federighi revealed that 130 different cases had been documented since May 2020, and that one of these had affected more than 300,000 Macs. He even admitted that members of his family had got malware on their Macs.

When the judge asked about the fact that Mac users can purchase and download software from various places on the Mac, rather than being limited to the Mac App Store, Federighi said: “Yeah, it’s certainly how we’ve done it on the Mac and it’s regularly exploited on the Mac. iOS has established a dramatically higher bar for customer protection. The Mac is not meeting that bar today.”

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Federighi noted that Mac users don’t download as much software as iOS users, and argued that if iOS was as open to third-party downloads there would be a real problem for that platform. “If you took Mac security techniques and applied them to the iOS ecosystem, with all those devices, all that value,” he said, “it would get run over to a degree dramatically worse than is already happening on the Mac.”

To get a feel for the number of attacks on the Mac platform, browse our complete list of Mac viruses, malware and trojans. Adware and Potentially Unwanted Programs (PUPs) make up the majority of the malware detections on Macs, according to Malwarebytes.

Do I need antivirus for Mac?

So should Mac users start panicking? No. Mac malware does pose a risk that users should be aware of, but it doesn’t follow that Macs absolutely must be equipped with antivirus software. Such products have their advantages and you may choose to install one for more peace of mind, but we don’t view them as essential for the Mac.

For one thing, there are measures put in place by Apple at the operating system level that should protect Mac users from the worst malware threats. These built-in security features make attacking a Mac particularly challenging. They include Gatekeeper, which blocks software that hasn’t been digitally approved by Apple from running on your Mac without your agreement, and XProtect, which is Apple’s own antivirus built into macOS and inspects every app for malware.

As you can see, Apple goes to great lengths to protect you from malware by making it almost impossible for you to download it in the first place, let alone install it. Additionally, Apple does a pretty good job of keeping on top of vulnerabilities and exploits; if your Mac needs to be protected from these, a patch will quickly be pushed out over auto-update.

Thanks to these features, before you can install an app, your Mac will check it against a list of malware, and even if there is no reason for concern it will not make it easy for you to open an application from a developer that hasn’t been approved.

These features and other protections built into macOS (which we will discuss in more detail below) mean it’s not an essential requirement to install antivirus software on your Mac.

However, as good as these protections are, there have been occasions when malware has managed to infiltrate the Mac platform, and times when Apple hasn’t responded to a threat as quickly as Mac users might hope. If you want the very best protection from threats, therefore, consider adding a dedicated Mac security suite such as Intego Mac Internet Security. You’ll find Intego at the top of our roundup of the best antivirus for Mac, among other free and paid-for antivirus apps that might give you some peace of mind, including McAfee and Norton.

Get Intego Mac Security X9 here

Read on to find out more about how Apple’s security measures work–and why they may not be enough to keep your Mac secure.

How Apple protects Macs from viruses

Macs are generally safer than PCs, but with threats to the Mac growing due to the platform’s increasing popularity, Apple has had to build in protections to macOS and the Mac hardware itself. 

In this section we will look at the built-in protections in macOS to establish whether they are enough, or if you should also install antivirus software on your Mac.

How XProtect works

The Mac’s malware scanning tool, XProtect, works invisibly and automatically in the background and requires no user configuration. Apple has a list of malicious applications that it checks against when you open downloaded applications. XProtect is regularly updated by Apple, and it updates in the background, so you should always be protected.

This is similar to having antivirus software from a third-party software developer running on your Mac, with the bonus of being written into the operating system and therefore not hampering performance.

If you download and try to open files contaminated with malware, you may see an explicit warning that the files will “damage your computer,” along with a reference to the type of malware. In that case you should delete the file immediately.

This is great news for Mac users, but is it enough? How does XProtect compare to the antivirus solutions out there? Well, XProtect may not be as up to date as some third-party products and it doesn’t look for as many strains of malware. Read our roundup of the Best Mac antivirus apps for an in-depth evaluation of the options out there.

How Gatekeeper works

Thanks to Gatekeeper, macOS blocks downloaded software that hasn’t been digitally signed, a process whereby Apple approves the developer. This leads to the familiar error message when you try to use or install unsigned software: “[This app] can’t be opened because it is from an unidentified developer.” One change to Gatekeeper that arrived in macOS Catalina a few years back was that software is checked for malware and other issues every time it runs, rather than just the first time you install it.

For maximum protection, GateKeeper can be set to only allow software to be installed if it was downloaded from the Mac App Store. Or you can set it to allow you to install software from the web, but from verified developers only.

You can adjust these settings via the Security & Privacy section of System Preferences:

1. In Security & Privacy, select the General tab. 
2. Choose from the options underneath Allow Applications Downloaded From.
3. Choose App Store or App Store and Identified Developers.

The safest option is App Store only, but if you also want to be able to install legitimate software from the web then App Store and Identified Developers is the best plan. There used to be a further option to disable the feature by choosing ‘Anywhere,’ but this option is no longer available.

All software downloaded via the App Store is signed, but should you attempt to open an app you’ve downloaded from the web that isn’t signed, you’ll see a Gatekeeper warning like the one below:

This may mean you’ve almost installed malware. On the other hand, of course, it may be a legitimate app. In which case (and if you’re sure) you can bypass Gatekeeper’s protection and install it.

To do so, go to the Finder and locate the app there. Now hold down Ctrl when you click on the app, and then select Open. This will mark it as being trusted. For more details, read how to open an app from an unidentified developer.

Being able to download unsigned software might sound like a benefit, but it essentially enables you to bypass the protections offered by Gatekeeper. That’s a mixed blessing, and more and more malicious apps are instructing users to do exactly this when they are installed.

Sandboxing and related protections

Software that is approved by Apple is also sandboxed, which means apps do only what they’re intended to do. App sandboxing isolates apps from the critical system components of your Mac, your data and your other apps, so they shouldn’t be able to do any damage. It doesn’t protect you from malware getting into the system, but it does limit the extent of what the malware can do once it’s in there.

The main problem here is that while apps sold on the Mac App Store have to be sandboxed, other Mac apps don’t.

However, even without app sandboxing, there are related features built into macOS that should still stop apps snooping on your data. Since macOS 10.15 Catalina in 2019 it has been a requirement for all Mac apps to get your permission before they can access your files. macOS will also ask for your permission before an app can access the camera or microphone, or log what you type.

Another change that arrived with Catalina is that macOS itself is now stored on a separate disk volume. This means that your important system files are all completely separate and therefore more challenging to access. Apps can’t get to your system files where they could cause problems.

Security updates

Apple regularly issues security updates for the Mac. While these can serve to demonstrate that the Mac isn’t infallible, with Apple all too frequently having security flaws pointed out to it, they are generally issued promptly.

Less pleasingly, these security updates have generally been issued as part of a larger macOS update: for example, macOS Monterey 12.2.1 closed a security vulnerability in WebKit that would have made it possible to execute malicious code. Because these security fixes were issued as part of a macOS update, which often requires the computer to reboot during the install process, Mac users may be less likely to install the update promptly, even though these updates can be set to install automatically.

Since the launch of Ventura, however, Apple has started separating out the security updates from wider macOS updates and rolling them out automatically. This way the update can happen in the background, without a restart.

Password protection and Passkeys

Apple improved the way users can manage passwords in macOS Monterey and also made some changes to two-factor authentication. You can find all your Passwords in System Preferences > Passwords. You just need to unlock it with your main password to see every other password you have. (You can also view this information on your iPhone in Settings > Passwords.)

In Monterey a new authenticator was added, so you can set up verification codes instead of using an authentication app. To add a setup key you need to click on a password and then choose Enter Setup Key, which you should be able to obtain from the provider. Once input the 2FA verification codes should automatically fill.

In macOS Ventura Apple moved from passwords to passkeys. Apple explains: “Passkeys use iCloud Keychain public key credentials, eliminating the need for passwords. Instead, they rely on biometric identification such as Touch ID and Face ID in iOS, or a specific confirmation in macOS for generating and authenticating accounts.” Passkeys are more secure, according to Apple. Essentially your device will hold one part of a cryptographic key pair and the other part will be stored by the website or service you’re logging into. Your device will authenticate you biometrically (with Touch ID or Face ID) and log you in. For more information, read How to use Passkeys.

Recording alerts

In macOS Monterey Apple added a Recording indicator in the menu bar so you’ll know if an app is recording you. A bit like the light that indicates the mic is in use on your iPhone.

Pasteboard alerts

Similarly, as of macOS Ventura, any app that wants access to your pasteboard has to request permission.

Safari protections

Anti-phishing technology in Safari will detect fraudulent websites. It will disable the page and display an alert if you visit a suspect website.

Anti-phishing isn’t the only way that Safari protects you when you’re surfing. Apple also allows users to prevent advertisers tracking them around the web. You can see a Privacy Report including details of all the cross-site trackers Apple has stopped from profiling you.

You’ll also notice that plug-ins such as Silverlight, QuickTime, and Oracle Java won’t run if they aren’t updated to the latest version, another way of ensuring your Mac is safe. And of course now that Adobe has discontinued Flash people should hopefully no longer fall for malware hidden in Flash Player.

Safari will also flag up weak passwords and make strong password suggestions when you open an account on a website. This strong password will be saved in your iCloud Keychain so you won’t have to remember it. It’s a lot safer than using the same password you always use. For more on this subject, read about How Apple plans to retire passwords.

In the past, one issue with Apple’s suggested passwords has been that sometimes they don’t match the website’s requirement. For example, a website may require one upper-case letter, one special character, one number and so on. As of the launch of Ventura, macOS allows users to edit suggested passwords so they meet these requirements.

New in Safari 15 were improvements to the Intelligent Tracing Prevention that arrived in Safari 14. Now web trackers won’t be able to see your IP address so they won’t be able to create a profile about you. Check this by choosing Safari from the Safari menu > Preferences > Privacy > Hide IP address from trackers.

Photo privacy

A few years ago there was a lot of bad publicity for Apple when celebrities reported that their iCloud photos had been stolen. (For more on this, read How to stop photo hacks on iPhone.) There have been a number of security enhancements in iCloud since this happened, and Apple has given users other ways to protect their photo privacy: for example, the ability to hide photos and albums. In Ventura, Apple expanded this so that hidden albums, and the Recently Deleted album, are locked by default, and only authenticated by Touch ID or Face ID.

Mail protections

macOS Monterey brought a new feature in Mail on the Mac. Mail Privacy Protection improves privacy for users. For example, it stops email senders from being able to track whether you’ve opened an email, or even determine your location from your IP address. Check that the feature is working for you by opening Mail > Click on Mail in the menu > choose Preferences > Privacy > and make sure Protect Mail Activity is selected. It should be by default.

There are additional Mail protections if you’re an iCloud subscriber. Hide My Email allows you to create an alternative email address that you can give out. The email will still be delivered to your inbox, but you can easily delete the alternative email later.

You can turn this on in System Preferences > click on Apple ID > and select Private Relay (currently in Beta). 

In Ventura Hide My Email was extended to third-party apps.

iCloud+ protections

If you’re an iCloud subscriber, you’ll be interested in a feature that arrived in Monterey (part of the upgrade from iCloud to iCloud+) called Private Relay. It’s a bit like a VPN in that it encrypts your network traffic and routes your DNS lookup requests through two servers, one of which is not controlled by Apple. However, it’s not a VPN, because it only works in Safari and obviously it lacks the other usual features of a VPN. (If you want a VPN, by the way, check out our roundup of the best VPNs for Mac. You may even be able to save some money if you take a look at our roundup of VPN deals, or try one of these free VPNs.)

You can manage your Private Relay settings in System Preferences > Apple ID > click on Options beside Hide my email. Here you will see any fake email addresses you’re using; just click on Turn Off if you want to stop those emails arriving. You can also change which email address they are forwarded to. 

Safety Check

A new feature in macOS Ventura is Safety Check, a feature that will allow anyone who is concerned that they are in danger from a person known to them to revoke any access they have granted to that person. So, for example, that person won’t be able to access their location, their photos, or anything else that could help them to be traced.

File encryption with FileVault

In addition to Gatekeeper, which should keep malware off your Mac, FileVault 2 makes sure your data is safe and secure by encrypting it.

If you’re concerned about someone being able to access the files on your Mac you can encrypt them using FileVault, which will mean only you can unencrypt them. Read our tips for keeping your mac secure, of which using FileVault is one.

Warnings about spyware

Apple announced in November 2021 that it would warn its users of state-sponsored espionage attacks, such as the well-publicised Pegasus spyware, on their iPhones, iPads and Macs. The notification will come via email or a message. The same warning will be displayed on the user’s Apple ID page at appleid.apple.com.

The warning will offer advice about how affected users can protect themselves against attack. There’s more information on Apple’s site.

Find My

Not every threat to your data comes from malware. Sometimes a criminal might get hold of your Mac, in which case Apple’s Find My service will come into its own.

The Find My app can relay the location of your lost or stolen Mac back to you. If you’re concerned that it might not be recoverable, you can wipe the contents of the Mac so that your data can’t be accessed. For more on this, read How to find a lost or stolen iPhone.

In addition, every Mac with an M1-series, M2-series, or T2 chip has an Activation Lock feature that means they can be bricked remotely.

When Apple’s security measures aren’t enough…

All the above is great, but unfortunately there have been cases where Gatekeeper has been bypassed because malware has got an approved developer signature. For example OSX/CrescentCore was able to bypass Gatekeeper because it was signed by a certificate assigned by Apple to a developer. It took Apple a few days to retract that certificate.

It isn’t only when malware gets a certificate from a registered developer. In the case of OSX/Linker, a zero-day vulnerability in Gatekeeper was being exploited.

Zero-day threats mean there are “zero days” to fix the vulnerabilities, although often a legitimate developer discovers the vulnerability and lets the developer know about it. There is usually a 90-day deadline for the fix to be made available. Some times the developer doesn’t act in time and the exploit is publicised.

Apple normally reacts quickly, although there have been cases where the company has ignored the identified vulnerability, such as when a teenager reported the Group FaceTime vulnerability that meant someone could listen in to a call and Apple failed to act. There’s more about how Apple reacts to security threats next.

When Apple is made aware of a threat the company usually issues a security update to the latest version of macOS and to the two versions prior to it. This way Apple will protect users from vulnerabilities and flaws in macOS that could be utilised by hackers.

Normally the advice would be to install the update immediately. However, for example a Sierra and High Sierra security update in July 2019 was subsequently pulled after people experiences problems after installing it.

How Apple responds to security threats

Despite the security measures Apple has in place, from time-to-time there are threats to the Mac.

Apple has its own security research team, but it depends on users and independent researchers to help by reporting any flaws they find in Apple products.

To this end, Apple has an incentive program that rewards such discoveries with payments of up to $200,000, depending on the seriousness of the flaw. But it was the last major tech company to set up such a scheme. (Microsoft set up its own bug-reporting incentive programme in 2013, and was itself criticised at the time for leaving it so late.)

On 4 August 2016, Apple security boss Ivan Krstic announced the Apple Security Bounty Program. “We’ve had great help from researchers in improving iOS security all along,” Krstic said. “[But] we’ve heard pretty consistently… that it’s getting increasingly difficult to find some of those most critical types of security vulnerabilities. So the Apple Security Bounty Program is going to reward researchers who actually share critical vulnerabilities with Apple.”

The top reward of $200,000 is given to those who discover vulnerabilities in Apple’s secure boot firmware components; for less critical flaws the bounties drop through a series of smaller figures to a bottom tier of $25,000. Wired has the details.

We imagine most Mac users will be pleased to hear that Apple has an incentive programme to encourage more widespread reporting of its vulnerabilities. Incentivising security researchers to let Apple know about a flaw instead of passing it on to hackers (which may still, sadly, be more lucrative) makes Apple products safer for everyone.

One such flaw was the High Sierra root bug, discovered on 28 November 2017. This flaw in macOS 10.13 could allow access to settings on a Mac without the need for a password. Apple immediately issued a statement confirming that it was working on a fix and an update was anticipated to be issued within days.

How to keep your Mac safe from malware

Apple does a lot to keep your Mac safe, but you have to work with it, installing updates when they arrive, not clicking on suspicious links in emails, not installing Flash, and so on. There are also some third party antivirus apps you could try – we have a complete guide to the best antivirus for Mac here.

Here are a few of the things you should do:

1) Keep macOS up to date

Despite what we said above about the security update Apple later retracted, normally the advice would be to install a security update as soon as possible.

Apple addresses flaws and vulnerabilities with the Mac by issuing updates to the Mac operating system, it is important to keep your Mac up to date. We advise checking regularly for OS updates remains a key part of a sound security strategy.

You can find out about the latest version of macOS here: macOS Ventura latest version information.

You can set your Mac to automatically update as soon as a new version of the operating system is made available. Follow these instructions to set that up:

How to automatically install macOS updates

1. Open System Preferences.
2. Click on Software Update.
3. Tick the box beside Automatically keep my Mac up to date.
4. Or, click on Advanced and choose from automatically: Check for updates, download new updates when available, Install macOS updates and Install app updates from the App Store.

How to automatically install High Sierra or older software updates

1. Open System Preferences.
2. Click on App Store.
3. Tick the box beside Automatically check for updates.
4. You can choose to download the newly available updates, if you want them to install automatically though you need to make sure the box beside Install macOS updates is checked.

How to manually install macOS software updates

If you’d rather not let your Mac automatically update, you should periodically check to see if there is an update to your version.

• In macOS High Sierra and earlier you can go to the Mac App Store and check for updates.
• In macOS Mojave and newer you need to go to the Software Update pane in System Preferences.

You may need to restart your computer once the update has downloaded. You can expect a typical 460MB download to take about 8 minutes (during which time you will still be able to work) but for a large update you will have to restart and install and that could take as much as 20 minutes, bringing the total install time to about 25 minutes in total.

For our in-depth guide to updating Mac operating systems, see How to update macOS.

2) Don’t connect to public Wi-Fi networks

Beware of connecting to a public Wi-Fi network as there may be someone spying who could gain access to your passwords and other private information, or you could have your session hijacked. Snoopers can set up their own Wi-Fi hotspot, pretending to be your hotel or coffee shop, then once you have connected they can grab any data you send over it. In the past there have been flaws detected in the OS that could allow access to your Mac, such as the SSL error in an earlier version of Mac OS X that meant it was possible for a hacker to access your machine if you were using public WiFi.

3) Don’t install Flash

Adobe discontinued Flash on 31 December 2020 with good reason. Intego, Malwarebytes and others recommended that you shouldn’t install Flash Player. Fake Flash Player updates have often been the means by which people install malware. For example, people want to watch or download a popular movie or TV series for free and they find a search result that leads to a request to update Flash Player in order to view the content. There is no need to install Flash Player now that HTML5 has made Flash obsolete. Now that Flash is no longer be supported the advice is simple: Don’t use Flash!

4) Keep Java up to date on your Mac

If you must use Java (which is also problematic) then make sure it’s up to date. Vulnerabilities with Java have highlighted the fact that there are cross-platform threats that even Mac users need to be aware of. Apple blocks Java by default, leaving it to the user to decide whether to install those tools. If you do need to update them be very careful where you download updates from!

5) Avoid falling foul of phishing emails

Protect yourself from phishing attacks not responding to emails that require you to enter a password or install anything. You could also use free software such as BlockBlock. That way even you were to carry out the steps to launch the malware, it would not be able to write files or mark itself as launching on startup.

6) Don’t fall for Facebook scams

Facebook scams are usually designed to harvest data about the most gullible people, so if it seems like it might be too good to be true it probably is and you’d be wise not to share it on Facebook. At best you might just look silly and those scammers will start to target you with more scams, at worse scammers can access your personal data and that of those you share their post with. So don’t click on a link just because a friend shared it and definitely don’t give out your personal data on Facebook.

Why you need to protect Windows users

One of the reasons why, regardless of how safe a Mac is from malware, we should run an antivirus is to protect our Windows using friends and colleagues. While it’s unlikely that your Mac will run any malware, there is possibly a more pernicious issue: You Mac could become the Typhoid Mary of Windows viruses, which is to say, you could be harboring viruses on your Mac that won’t effect you, but can be problems for Windows users.

Some years ago when writing about Mac malware we identified the following nasties on our Mac:

That is a list of 30 potentially bad things that… you guessed it, were found on the Mac we ran a test virus scan on, one of which was a Windows virus.

How to tell if a Mac has a virus

Look out for the following signs that your Mac has been infected with malware: 

1. Aggressive web page banners and browser pop-ups recommending software.
2. Web page text turning into hyperlinks.
3. Programs appearing that you haven’t authorized.
4. Mac crashes.
5. Mac runs hot.
6. Mac speeds up for no reason.

If you think something suspicious is happening, open Activity Monitor and click on the CPU tab. Check what software is running – especially if something is hogging a lot of your resources.

We discuss how to tell if your Mac has a virus and how to remove a Mac virus in a separate article: How to remove a virus from a Mac and How to protect your Mac against attack and disaster to avoid getting infected.

Antivirus, Personal Software, Security

Do Macs get viruses? Do Macs need antivirus software? The answers to these questions aren’t as simple as they might seem. In this article, we look at the dangers faced by Mac users, and the pros and cons of using Mac antivirus software.

Historically, the Mac has been considered safe and secure for a number of reasons that we will go into below, but in recent years the consensus has fluctuated. In its 2020 State of Malware report, Malwarebytes said it saw “a significant rise in the overall prevalence of Mac threats in 2019, with an increase of over 400 percent from 2018.” The following year, the company found that overall malware detected on macOS decreased by 38 percent but that the worst kind, namely “backdoors, data stealers, and cryptocurrency stealers/miners,” increased by more than 61 percent.

One reason for the decline in 2020 was the pandemic; as restrictions were lifted, malware saw a resurgence in 2021, with the number of Mac detections soaring by more than 200 percent to an astonishing 164 million. Even Apple software boss Craig Federighi acknowledged in May 2021 that Mac malware was a problem… although it’s worth bearing in mind that at the time he was trying to make the case for iOS’s very different approach to security. “Today,” he said, “we have a level of malware on the Mac that we don’t find acceptable.” Federighi revealed that 130 different cases had been documented since May 2020, and that one of these had affected more than 300,000 Macs. He even admitted that members of his family had got malware on their Macs.

When the judge asked about the fact that Mac users can purchase and download software from various places on the Mac, rather than being limited to the Mac App Store, Federighi said: “Yeah, it’s certainly how we’ve done it on the Mac and it’s regularly exploited on the Mac. iOS has established a dramatically higher bar for customer protection. The Mac is not meeting that bar today.”

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Federighi noted that Mac users don’t download as much software as iOS users, and argued that if iOS was as open to third-party downloads there would be a real problem for that platform. “If you took Mac security techniques and applied them to the iOS ecosystem, with all those devices, all that value,” he said, “it would get run over to a degree dramatically worse than is already happening on the Mac.”

To get a feel for the number of attacks on the Mac platform, browse our complete list of Mac viruses, malware and trojans. Adware and Potentially Unwanted Programs (PUPs) make up the majority of the malware detections on Macs, according to Malwarebytes.

Do I need antivirus for Mac?

So should Mac users start panicking? No. Mac malware does pose a risk that users should be aware of, but it doesn’t follow that Macs absolutely must be equipped with antivirus software. Such products have their advantages and you may choose to install one for more peace of mind, but we don’t view them as essential for the Mac.

For one thing, there are measures put in place by Apple at the operating system level that should protect Mac users from the worst malware threats. These built-in security features make attacking a Mac particularly challenging. They include Gatekeeper, which blocks software that hasn’t been digitally approved by Apple from running on your Mac without your agreement, and XProtect, which is Apple’s own antivirus built into macOS and inspects every app for malware.

As you can see, Apple goes to great lengths to protect you from malware by making it almost impossible for you to download it in the first place, let alone install it. Additionally, Apple does a pretty good job of keeping on top of vulnerabilities and exploits; if your Mac needs to be protected from these, a patch will quickly be pushed out over auto-update.

Thanks to these features, before you can install an app, your Mac will check it against a list of malware, and even if there is no reason for concern it will not make it easy for you to open an application from a developer that hasn’t been approved.

These features and other protections built into macOS (which we will discuss in more detail below) mean it’s not an essential requirement to install antivirus software on your Mac.

However, as good as these protections are, there have been occasions when malware has managed to infiltrate the Mac platform, and times when Apple hasn’t responded to a threat as quickly as Mac users might hope. If you want the very best protection from threats, therefore, consider adding a dedicated Mac security suite such as Intego Mac Internet Security. You’ll find Intego at the top of our roundup of the best antivirus for Mac, among other free and paid-for antivirus apps that might give you some peace of mind, including McAfee and Norton.

Get Intego Mac Security X9 here

Read on to find out more about how Apple’s security measures work–and why they may not be enough to keep your Mac secure.

How Apple protects Macs from viruses

Macs are generally safer than PCs, but with threats to the Mac growing due to the platform’s increasing popularity, Apple has had to build in protections to macOS and the Mac hardware itself. 

In this section we will look at the built-in protections in macOS to establish whether they are enough, or if you should also install antivirus software on your Mac.

How XProtect works

The Mac’s malware scanning tool, XProtect, works invisibly and automatically in the background and requires no user configuration. Apple has a list of malicious applications that it checks against when you open downloaded applications. XProtect is regularly updated by Apple, and it updates in the background, so you should always be protected.

This is similar to having antivirus software from a third-party software developer running on your Mac, with the bonus of being written into the operating system and therefore not hampering performance.

If you download and try to open files contaminated with malware, you may see an explicit warning that the files will “damage your computer,” along with a reference to the type of malware. In that case you should delete the file immediately.

This is great news for Mac users, but is it enough? How does XProtect compare to the antivirus solutions out there? Well, XProtect may not be as up to date as some third-party products and it doesn’t look for as many strains of malware. Read our roundup of the Best Mac antivirus apps for an in-depth evaluation of the options out there.

How Gatekeeper works

Thanks to Gatekeeper, macOS blocks downloaded software that hasn’t been digitally signed, a process whereby Apple approves the developer. This leads to the familiar error message when you try to use or install unsigned software: “[This app] can’t be opened because it is from an unidentified developer.” One change to Gatekeeper that arrived in macOS Catalina a few years back was that software is checked for malware and other issues every time it runs, rather than just the first time you install it.

For maximum protection, GateKeeper can be set to only allow software to be installed if it was downloaded from the Mac App Store. Or you can set it to allow you to install software from the web, but from verified developers only.

You can adjust these settings via the Security & Privacy section of System Preferences:

1. In Security & Privacy, select the General tab. 
2. Choose from the options underneath Allow Applications Downloaded From.
3. Choose App Store or App Store and Identified Developers.

The safest option is App Store only, but if you also want to be able to install legitimate software from the web then App Store and Identified Developers is the best plan. There used to be a further option to disable the feature by choosing ‘Anywhere,’ but this option is no longer available.

All software downloaded via the App Store is signed, but should you attempt to open an app you’ve downloaded from the web that isn’t signed, you’ll see a Gatekeeper warning like the one below:

This may mean you’ve almost installed malware. On the other hand, of course, it may be a legitimate app. In which case (and if you’re sure) you can bypass Gatekeeper’s protection and install it.

To do so, go to the Finder and locate the app there. Now hold down Ctrl when you click on the app, and then select Open. This will mark it as being trusted. For more details, read how to open an app from an unidentified developer.

Being able to download unsigned software might sound like a benefit, but it essentially enables you to bypass the protections offered by Gatekeeper. That’s a mixed blessing, and more and more malicious apps are instructing users to do exactly this when they are installed.

Sandboxing and related protections

Software that is approved by Apple is also sandboxed, which means apps do only what they’re intended to do. App sandboxing isolates apps from the critical system components of your Mac, your data and your other apps, so they shouldn’t be able to do any damage. It doesn’t protect you from malware getting into the system, but it does limit the extent of what the malware can do once it’s in there.

The main problem here is that while apps sold on the Mac App Store have to be sandboxed, other Mac apps don’t.

However, even without app sandboxing, there are related features built into macOS that should still stop apps snooping on your data. Since macOS 10.15 Catalina in 2019 it has been a requirement for all Mac apps to get your permission before they can access your files. macOS will also ask for your permission before an app can access the camera or microphone, or log what you type.

Another change that arrived with Catalina is that macOS itself is now stored on a separate disk volume. This means that your important system files are all completely separate and therefore more challenging to access. Apps can’t get to your system files where they could cause problems.

Security updates

Apple regularly issues security updates for the Mac. While these can serve to demonstrate that the Mac isn’t infallible, with Apple all too frequently having security flaws pointed out to it, they are generally issued promptly.

Less pleasingly, these security updates have generally been issued as part of a larger macOS update: for example, macOS Monterey 12.2.1 closed a security vulnerability in WebKit that would have made it possible to execute malicious code. Because these security fixes were issued as part of a macOS update, which often requires the computer to reboot during the install process, Mac users may be less likely to install the update promptly, even though these updates can be set to install automatically.

Since the launch of Ventura, however, Apple has started separating out the security updates from wider macOS updates and rolling them out automatically. This way the update can happen in the background, without a restart.

Password protection and Passkeys

Apple improved the way users can manage passwords in macOS Monterey and also made some changes to two-factor authentication. You can find all your Passwords in System Preferences > Passwords. You just need to unlock it with your main password to see every other password you have. (You can also view this information on your iPhone in Settings > Passwords.)

In Monterey a new authenticator was added, so you can set up verification codes instead of using an authentication app. To add a setup key you need to click on a password and then choose Enter Setup Key, which you should be able to obtain from the provider. Once input the 2FA verification codes should automatically fill.

In macOS Ventura Apple moved from passwords to passkeys. Apple explains: “Passkeys use iCloud Keychain public key credentials, eliminating the need for passwords. Instead, they rely on biometric identification such as Touch ID and Face ID in iOS, or a specific confirmation in macOS for generating and authenticating accounts.” Passkeys are more secure, according to Apple. Essentially your device will hold one part of a cryptographic key pair and the other part will be stored by the website or service you’re logging into. Your device will authenticate you biometrically (with Touch ID or Face ID) and log you in. For more information, read How to use Passkeys.

Recording alerts

In macOS Monterey Apple added a Recording indicator in the menu bar so you’ll know if an app is recording you. A bit like the light that indicates the mic is in use on your iPhone.

Pasteboard alerts

Similarly, as of macOS Ventura, any app that wants access to your pasteboard has to request permission.

Safari protections

Anti-phishing technology in Safari will detect fraudulent websites. It will disable the page and display an alert if you visit a suspect website.

Anti-phishing isn’t the only way that Safari protects you when you’re surfing. Apple also allows users to prevent advertisers tracking them around the web. You can see a Privacy Report including details of all the cross-site trackers Apple has stopped from profiling you.

You’ll also notice that plug-ins such as Silverlight, QuickTime, and Oracle Java won’t run if they aren’t updated to the latest version, another way of ensuring your Mac is safe. And of course now that Adobe has discontinued Flash people should hopefully no longer fall for malware hidden in Flash Player.

Safari will also flag up weak passwords and make strong password suggestions when you open an account on a website. This strong password will be saved in your iCloud Keychain so you won’t have to remember it. It’s a lot safer than using the same password you always use. For more on this subject, read about How Apple plans to retire passwords.

In the past, one issue with Apple’s suggested passwords has been that sometimes they don’t match the website’s requirement. For example, a website may require one upper-case letter, one special character, one number and so on. As of the launch of Ventura, macOS allows users to edit suggested passwords so they meet these requirements.

New in Safari 15 were improvements to the Intelligent Tracing Prevention that arrived in Safari 14. Now web trackers won’t be able to see your IP address so they won’t be able to create a profile about you. Check this by choosing Safari from the Safari menu > Preferences > Privacy > Hide IP address from trackers.

Photo privacy

A few years ago there was a lot of bad publicity for Apple when celebrities reported that their iCloud photos had been stolen. (For more on this, read How to stop photo hacks on iPhone.) There have been a number of security enhancements in iCloud since this happened, and Apple has given users other ways to protect their photo privacy: for example, the ability to hide photos and albums. In Ventura, Apple expanded this so that hidden albums, and the Recently Deleted album, are locked by default, and only authenticated by Touch ID or Face ID.

Mail protections

macOS Monterey brought a new feature in Mail on the Mac. Mail Privacy Protection improves privacy for users. For example, it stops email senders from being able to track whether you’ve opened an email, or even determine your location from your IP address. Check that the feature is working for you by opening Mail > Click on Mail in the menu > choose Preferences > Privacy > and make sure Protect Mail Activity is selected. It should be by default.

There are additional Mail protections if you’re an iCloud subscriber. Hide My Email allows you to create an alternative email address that you can give out. The email will still be delivered to your inbox, but you can easily delete the alternative email later.

You can turn this on in System Preferences > click on Apple ID > and select Private Relay (currently in Beta). 

In Ventura Hide My Email was extended to third-party apps.

iCloud+ protections

If you’re an iCloud subscriber, you’ll be interested in a feature that arrived in Monterey (part of the upgrade from iCloud to iCloud+) called Private Relay. It’s a bit like a VPN in that it encrypts your network traffic and routes your DNS lookup requests through two servers, one of which is not controlled by Apple. However, it’s not a VPN, because it only works in Safari and obviously it lacks the other usual features of a VPN. (If you want a VPN, by the way, check out our roundup of the best VPNs for Mac. You may even be able to save some money if you take a look at our roundup of VPN deals, or try one of these free VPNs.)

You can manage your Private Relay settings in System Preferences > Apple ID > click on Options beside Hide my email. Here you will see any fake email addresses you’re using; just click on Turn Off if you want to stop those emails arriving. You can also change which email address they are forwarded to. 

Safety Check

A new feature in macOS Ventura is Safety Check, a feature that will allow anyone who is concerned that they are in danger from a person known to them to revoke any access they have granted to that person. So, for example, that person won’t be able to access their location, their photos, or anything else that could help them to be traced.

File encryption with FileVault

In addition to Gatekeeper, which should keep malware off your Mac, FileVault 2 makes sure your data is safe and secure by encrypting it.

If you’re concerned about someone being able to access the files on your Mac you can encrypt them using FileVault, which will mean only you can unencrypt them. Read our tips for keeping your mac secure, of which using FileVault is one.

Warnings about spyware

Apple announced in November 2021 that it would warn its users of state-sponsored espionage attacks, such as the well-publicised Pegasus spyware, on their iPhones, iPads and Macs. The notification will come via email or a message. The same warning will be displayed on the user’s Apple ID page at appleid.apple.com.

The warning will offer advice about how affected users can protect themselves against attack. There’s more information on Apple’s site.

Find My

Not every threat to your data comes from malware. Sometimes a criminal might get hold of your Mac, in which case Apple’s Find My service will come into its own.

The Find My app can relay the location of your lost or stolen Mac back to you. If you’re concerned that it might not be recoverable, you can wipe the contents of the Mac so that your data can’t be accessed. For more on this, read How to find a lost or stolen iPhone.

In addition, every Mac with an M1-series, M2-series, or T2 chip has an Activation Lock feature that means they can be bricked remotely.

When Apple’s security measures aren’t enough…

All the above is great, but unfortunately there have been cases where Gatekeeper has been bypassed because malware has got an approved developer signature. For example OSX/CrescentCore was able to bypass Gatekeeper because it was signed by a certificate assigned by Apple to a developer. It took Apple a few days to retract that certificate.

It isn’t only when malware gets a certificate from a registered developer. In the case of OSX/Linker, a zero-day vulnerability in Gatekeeper was being exploited.

Zero-day threats mean there are “zero days” to fix the vulnerabilities, although often a legitimate developer discovers the vulnerability and lets the developer know about it. There is usually a 90-day deadline for the fix to be made available. Some times the developer doesn’t act in time and the exploit is publicised.

Apple normally reacts quickly, although there have been cases where the company has ignored the identified vulnerability, such as when a teenager reported the Group FaceTime vulnerability that meant someone could listen in to a call and Apple failed to act. There’s more about how Apple reacts to security threats next.

When Apple is made aware of a threat the company usually issues a security update to the latest version of macOS and to the two versions prior to it. This way Apple will protect users from vulnerabilities and flaws in macOS that could be utilised by hackers.

Normally the advice would be to install the update immediately. However, for example a Sierra and High Sierra security update in July 2019 was subsequently pulled after people experiences problems after installing it.

How Apple responds to security threats

Despite the security measures Apple has in place, from time-to-time there are threats to the Mac.

Apple has its own security research team, but it depends on users and independent researchers to help by reporting any flaws they find in Apple products.

To this end, Apple has an incentive program that rewards such discoveries with payments of up to $200,000, depending on the seriousness of the flaw. But it was the last major tech company to set up such a scheme. (Microsoft set up its own bug-reporting incentive programme in 2013, and was itself criticised at the time for leaving it so late.)

On 4 August 2016, Apple security boss Ivan Krstic announced the Apple Security Bounty Program. “We’ve had great help from researchers in improving iOS security all along,” Krstic said. “[But] we’ve heard pretty consistently… that it’s getting increasingly difficult to find some of those most critical types of security vulnerabilities. So the Apple Security Bounty Program is going to reward researchers who actually share critical vulnerabilities with Apple.”

The top reward of $200,000 is given to those who discover vulnerabilities in Apple’s secure boot firmware components; for less critical flaws the bounties drop through a series of smaller figures to a bottom tier of $25,000. Wired has the details.

We imagine most Mac users will be pleased to hear that Apple has an incentive programme to encourage more widespread reporting of its vulnerabilities. Incentivising security researchers to let Apple know about a flaw instead of passing it on to hackers (which may still, sadly, be more lucrative) makes Apple products safer for everyone.

One such flaw was the High Sierra root bug, discovered on 28 November 2017. This flaw in macOS 10.13 could allow access to settings on a Mac without the need for a password. Apple immediately issued a statement confirming that it was working on a fix and an update was anticipated to be issued within days.

How to keep your Mac safe from malware

Apple does a lot to keep your Mac safe, but you have to work with it, installing updates when they arrive, not clicking on suspicious links in emails, not installing Flash, and so on. There are also some third party antivirus apps you could try – we have a complete guide to the best antivirus for Mac here.

Here are a few of the things you should do:

1) Keep macOS up to date

Despite what we said above about the security update Apple later retracted, normally the advice would be to install a security update as soon as possible.

Apple addresses flaws and vulnerabilities with the Mac by issuing updates to the Mac operating system, it is important to keep your Mac up to date. We advise checking regularly for OS updates remains a key part of a sound security strategy.

You can find out about the latest version of macOS here: macOS Ventura latest version information.

You can set your Mac to automatically update as soon as a new version of the operating system is made available. Follow these instructions to set that up:

How to automatically install macOS updates

1. Open System Preferences.
2. Click on Software Update.
3. Tick the box beside Automatically keep my Mac up to date.
4. Or, click on Advanced and choose from automatically: Check for updates, download new updates when available, Install macOS updates and Install app updates from the App Store.

How to automatically install High Sierra or older software updates

1. Open System Preferences.
2. Click on App Store.
3. Tick the box beside Automatically check for updates.
4. You can choose to download the newly available updates, if you want them to install automatically though you need to make sure the box beside Install macOS updates is checked.

How to manually install macOS software updates

If you’d rather not let your Mac automatically update, you should periodically check to see if there is an update to your version.

• In macOS High Sierra and earlier you can go to the Mac App Store and check for updates.
• In macOS Mojave and newer you need to go to the Software Update pane in System Preferences.

You may need to restart your computer once the update has downloaded. You can expect a typical 460MB download to take about 8 minutes (during which time you will still be able to work) but for a large update you will have to restart and install and that could take as much as 20 minutes, bringing the total install time to about 25 minutes in total.

For our in-depth guide to updating Mac operating systems, see How to update macOS.

2) Don’t connect to public Wi-Fi networks

Beware of connecting to a public Wi-Fi network as there may be someone spying who could gain access to your passwords and other private information, or you could have your session hijacked. Snoopers can set up their own Wi-Fi hotspot, pretending to be your hotel or coffee shop, then once you have connected they can grab any data you send over it. In the past there have been flaws detected in the OS that could allow access to your Mac, such as the SSL error in an earlier version of Mac OS X that meant it was possible for a hacker to access your machine if you were using public WiFi.

3) Don’t install Flash

Adobe discontinued Flash on 31 December 2020 with good reason. Intego, Malwarebytes and others recommended that you shouldn’t install Flash Player. Fake Flash Player updates have often been the means by which people install malware. For example, people want to watch or download a popular movie or TV series for free and they find a search result that leads to a request to update Flash Player in order to view the content. There is no need to install Flash Player now that HTML5 has made Flash obsolete. Now that Flash is no longer be supported the advice is simple: Don’t use Flash!

4) Keep Java up to date on your Mac

If you must use Java (which is also problematic) then make sure it’s up to date. Vulnerabilities with Java have highlighted the fact that there are cross-platform threats that even Mac users need to be aware of. Apple blocks Java by default, leaving it to the user to decide whether to install those tools. If you do need to update them be very careful where you download updates from!

5) Avoid falling foul of phishing emails

Protect yourself from phishing attacks not responding to emails that require you to enter a password or install anything. You could also use free software such as BlockBlock. That way even you were to carry out the steps to launch the malware, it would not be able to write files or mark itself as launching on startup.

6) Don’t fall for Facebook scams

Facebook scams are usually designed to harvest data about the most gullible people, so if it seems like it might be too good to be true it probably is and you’d be wise not to share it on Facebook. At best you might just look silly and those scammers will start to target you with more scams, at worse scammers can access your personal data and that of those you share their post with. So don’t click on a link just because a friend shared it and definitely don’t give out your personal data on Facebook.

Why you need to protect Windows users

One of the reasons why, regardless of how safe a Mac is from malware, we should run an antivirus is to protect our Windows using friends and colleagues. While it’s unlikely that your Mac will run any malware, there is possibly a more pernicious issue: You Mac could become the Typhoid Mary of Windows viruses, which is to say, you could be harboring viruses on your Mac that won’t effect you, but can be problems for Windows users.

Some years ago when writing about Mac malware we identified the following nasties on our Mac:

That is a list of 30 potentially bad things that… you guessed it, were found on the Mac we ran a test virus scan on, one of which was a Windows virus.

How to tell if a Mac has a virus

Look out for the following signs that your Mac has been infected with malware: 

1. Aggressive web page banners and browser pop-ups recommending software.
2. Web page text turning into hyperlinks.
3. Programs appearing that you haven’t authorized.
4. Mac crashes.
5. Mac runs hot.
6. Mac speeds up for no reason.

If you think something suspicious is happening, open Activity Monitor and click on the CPU tab. Check what software is running – especially if something is hogging a lot of your resources.

We discuss how to tell if your Mac has a virus and how to remove a Mac virus in a separate article: How to remove a virus from a Mac and How to protect your Mac against attack and disaster to avoid getting infected.

Antivirus, Personal Software, Security

Apple has announced what’s coming in iPadOS 17.

Widgets – Widgets will make the home screen much more powerful.

Customised Lock Screen – Personalise the iPad lock screen. Tap and hold to choose wallpaper options. If you choose a Live Photo they synthesise additional frames to create a slow mo effect. These seem to be influenced by the Apple Watch faces.

Live Activities – from the Lock Screen you can keep track of a food order, travel plans and a timer, for example.

You can even keep track of multiple timers!

Health app – first time on iPadOS. Take advantage of larger screen. All data synced from all your devices. HealthKit comes to iPad.

PDFs – Changes to how you work with PDFs. Make them easier to work with. iPadOS can use autofil to fill our fields in a PDF – even in documents scanned with a camera.

Notes – Update to let you collaborate on PDFs. PDFs sit inside Notes and you can view the PDF and view it and flick through pages. Keep multiple PDFs in one Note. You can collaborate so any changes appear straight away.

Stage Manager – Improvements to the size of windows and more control over workspace.

FaceTime – To gain more control of camera.

We will update this story as the news breaks, please reload this page for the latest news.

— Here are the rumors —

t’s not long now until Apple should be revealing the latest iteration of iPadOS to the world. Here’s all we know so far about potential release dates, new features and which models will be able to run the software. It’s everything you need to know about iPadOS 17.

iPadOS 17 release date: When will iPadOS 17 come out?

There’s no official date from Apple as yet, but it does have a pretty reliable history of releasing software versions around the same time each year, as you can see from the dates below.

• iPadOS 16: October 24, 2022
• iPadOS 15: September 20, 2021
• iPadOS 14: September 16, 2020
• iPadOS 13: September 24, 2019

With the exception of the last version, which was thought to be delayed to add polish to some features, Apple always introduces a new iteration of iPadOS in the second half of September. We think it’s likely that iPadOS 17 will launch at the same time as iOS 17, as we aren’t expecting any major changes that might delay its launch, so a September launch is most likely.

In the run-up to the full release, Apple will also make available beta versions of the OS to those on the Apple Beta Software program. This includes several iterations, and we expect it to look something like this:

• June 5, 2023: iPadOS 17 is announced at WWDC, and the first developer beta is released.
• July 2023: Apple releases the first public beta of iPadOS 17.
• June to September 2023: A series of additional developer and public betas appear.
• September/October 2023: The final public version of iPadOS 17 is released.

To see the history of every release so far, you can read our guide to all the iOS and iPadOS versions.

iPadOS 17 compatibility: Which iPads will run iPadOS 17?

Apple usually does an excellent job of keeping older iPads up to date in terms of the software versions they run. When iPadOS 16 arrived, only a couple of older iPads that were running iPadOS 15 couldn’t make the transition. We don’t know yet whether this will be the case in 2023, but it could be the last gasp for a few devices that are now pretty long in the tooth, according to a source from French site iPhoneSoft in April 2023.

The prime suspects for the cull are the 2016 iPad Pro 9.7-inch and 2015 iPad Pro 12.9-inch (1st generation) whose A9X processors are getting on a bit now. There’s also the 2017 iPad (5th generation) which runs on an even slower A9 processor.

Just above those are the iPad Pro 10.5-inch, which sports an A10X, as does the iPad Pro 12.9-inch (2nd generation), and the iPad (6th generation) with its A10, but we hope they might slip through to iPadOS 17 this time around. It may well be that these older iPads get the new version of iPadOS, but not all the features.

That would leave the following on the compatibility list for iPadOS 17:

• iPad Pro 12.9 (5th gen)
• iPad Pro 11 (3rd gen)
• iPad Pro 12.9 (4th gen)
• iPad Pro 11 (2nd gen)
• iPad Pro 12.9 (3rd gen)
• iPad Pro 11 (1st gen)
• iPad Pro 12.9 (2nd gen)
• iPad Pro 10.5
• iPad (9th gen)
• iPad (8th gen)
• iPad (7th gen)
• iPad (6th gen)
• iPad mini (6th gen)
• iPad mini (5th gen)
• iPad Air (4th gen)
• iPad Air (3rd gen)

iPadOS 17 features: What new features will we see in iPadOS 17?

There’s been a definite lack of substantial rumors when it comes to iPadOS 17. This could suggest that Apple intends to make it a performance-boosting iteration rather than rolling out too many new features or that most of the new features will also be available for iOS. However, there are a few things that we do expect to find when we launch the new software on our iPads for the first time.

Third-party app stores

The EU has been getting up in Apple’s grill for a little while now. We’ve all heard about the iPhone’s switch from Lighting ports to USB-C that seems imminent, after the political bloc created laws to make it obligatory to use the standard in its region. We’ve even seen leaked photos that purport to show an iPhone 15 bearing a USB-C port for the first time. But there’s also another set of laws in place, called the Digital Markets Act, which impels Apple to open up its devices to third-party app stores.

Bloomberg’s Mark Gurman has reported on the story, saying it’s likely we’ll see Apple introducing third-party app stores and the ability to sideload apps in iPadOS 17. These capabilities have been available on Android for years, but it would be a huge change to the “walled garden” approach Apple has adopted since the introduction of the first iPhone.

Whether Apple users will want to take advantage of these new marketplaces remains doubtful, but at least they will now have the choice. At least they will in some countries—it’s likely that sideloading will only be available for iPhone users in Europe.

macOS for iPad

Apple’s always said it won’t happen, but Majin Bu (back in October 2022) tweeted that macOS 14 could be destined for the M2 iPad Pro.

Majin Bu doesn’t have a great track record though, and there is little evidence that Apple is working to merge the iPad and Mac lines, so it may never happen. But with Final Cut and Logic Pro now available on the iPad Pro we should never say never.

Custom Lock Screens

When iOS 16 dropped, it came with a revamped Lock Screen on which you could use widgets, dynamic images, and new fonts and colors to make the device feel far more customizable than ever. Sadly, the same capabilities didn’t make their way into iPadOS 16, but rumors report that the new Lock Screen customization is coming to tablets in iPadOS 17.

For a rundown of what this feature can do on iPhone, take a look at our guide to customizing your Lock Screen in iOS 16.

Third-party browsers free from WebKit

Another potential spillover from the EU’s Digital Markets Act is allowing third-party browsers such as Chrome and Firefox to use their own engines, rather than the Apple WebKit variant that the company currently demands. This would see the other browsers behave more like their web-based versions, instantly beefing up their capabilities. We’d like to see this as it would also provoke Apple to up its game with Safari.

New Control Center

We’ve seen a few rumors that iOS 17 could come with an updated version of Control Center. As is often the case, this suggests we could see a similar venture on iPadOS 17. There are no solid details on what the revamp would do, but we’d be very happy to see this underdeveloped part of the system be given some love.

That’s all we’ve found so far, but obviously, we’ll keep updating this article as new information comes to light, so be sure to check back. In the meantime, take a look at our iPad buying guide to see if you can get a good deal on a new iPad that will be the home for iPadOS 17 when it arrives.

Better support for multiple users and accounts

Lots of people share an iPad with various family members. It’s time for Apple to allow an iPad to be set up with different profiles, like a Mac can be. This would allow an iPad to have age restrictions specific to children’s accounts.

iPad

It’s not long now until Apple should be revealing the latest iteration of iPadOS to the world. Here’s all we know so far about potential release dates, new features and which models will be able to run the software. It’s everything you need to know about iPadOS 17.

iPadOS 17 release date: When will iPadOS 17 come out?

There’s no official date from Apple as yet, but it does have a pretty reliable history of releasing software versions around the same time each year, as you can see from the dates below.

• iPadOS 16: October 24, 2022
• iPadOS 15: September 20, 2021
• iPadOS 14: September 16, 2020
• iPadOS 13: September 24, 2019

With the exception of the last version, which was thought to be delayed to add polish to some features, Apple always introduces a new iteration of iPadOS in the second half of September. We think it’s likely that iPadOS 17 will launch at the same time as iOS 17, as we aren’t expecting any major changes that might delay its launch, so a September launch is most likely.

In the run-up to the full release, Apple will also make available beta versions of the OS to those on the Apple Beta Software program. This includes several iterations, and we expect it to look something like this:

• June 5, 2023: iPadOS 17 is announced at WWDC, and the first developer beta is released.
• July 2023: Apple releases the first public beta of iPadOS 17.
• June to September 2023: A series of additional developer and public betas appear.
• September/October 2023: The final public version of iPadOS 17 is released.

To see the history of every release so far, you can read our guide to all the iOS and iPadOS versions.

iPadOS 17 compatibility: Which iPads will run iPadOS 17?

Apple usually does an excellent job of keeping older iPads up to date in terms of the software versions they run. When iPadOS 16 arrived, only a couple of older iPads that were running iPadOS 15 couldn’t make the transition. We don’t know yet whether this will be the case in 2023, but it could be the last gasp for a few devices that are now pretty long in the tooth, according to a source from French site iPhoneSoft in April 2023.

The prime suspects for the cull are the 2016 iPad Pro 9.7-inch and 2015 iPad Pro 12.9-inch (1st generation) whose A9X processors are getting on a bit now. There’s also the 2017 iPad (5th generation) which runs on an even slower A9 processor.

Just above those are the iPad Pro 10.5-inch, which sports an A10X, as does the iPad Pro 12.9-inch (2nd generation), and the iPad (6th generation) with its A10, but we hope they might slip through to iPadOS 17 this time around. It may well be that these older iPads get the new version of iPadOS, but not all the features.

That would leave the following on the compatibility list for iPadOS 17:

• iPad Pro 12.9 (5th gen)
• iPad Pro 11 (3rd gen)
• iPad Pro 12.9 (4th gen)
• iPad Pro 11 (2nd gen)
• iPad Pro 12.9 (3rd gen)
• iPad Pro 11 (1st gen)
• iPad Pro 12.9 (2nd gen)
• iPad Pro 10.5
• iPad (9th gen)
• iPad (8th gen)
• iPad (7th gen)
• iPad (6th gen)
• iPad mini (6th gen)
• iPad mini (5th gen)
• iPad Air (4th gen)
• iPad Air (3rd gen)

iPadOS 17 features: What new features will we see in iPadOS 17?

There’s been a definite lack of substantial rumors when it comes to iPadOS 17. This could suggest that Apple intends to make it a performance-boosting iteration rather than rolling out too many new features or that most of the new features will also be available for iOS. However, there are a few things that we do expect to find when we launch the new software on our iPads for the first time.

Third-party app stores

The EU has been getting up in Apple’s grill for a little while now. We’ve all heard about the iPhone’s switch from Lighting ports to USB-C that seems imminent, after the political bloc created laws to make it obligatory to use the standard in its region. We’ve even seen leaked photos that purport to show an iPhone 15 bearing a USB-C port for the first time. But there’s also another set of laws in place, called the Digital Markets Act, which impels Apple to open up its devices to third-party app stores.

Bloomberg’s Mark Gurman has reported on the story, saying it’s likely we’ll see Apple introducing third-party app stores and the ability to sideload apps in iPadOS 17. These capabilities have been available on Android for years, but it would be a huge change to the “walled garden” approach Apple has adopted since the introduction of the first iPhone.

Whether Apple users will want to take advantage of these new marketplaces remains doubtful, but at least they will now have the choice. At least they will in some countries—it’s likely that sideloading will only be available for iPhone users in Europe.

macOS for iPad

Apple’s always said it won’t happen, but Majin Bu (back in October 2022) tweeted that macOS 14 could be destined for the M2 iPad Pro.

Majin Bu doesn’t have a great track record though, and there is little evidence that Apple is working to merge the iPad and Mac lines, so it may never happen. But with Final Cut and Logic Pro now available on the iPad Pro we should never say never.

Custom Lock Screens

When iOS 16 dropped, it came with a revamped Lock Screen on which you could use widgets, dynamic images, and new fonts and colors to make the device feel far more customizable than ever. Sadly, the same capabilities didn’t make their way into iPadOS 16, but rumors report that the new Lock Screen customization is coming to tablets in iPadOS 17.

For a rundown of what this feature can do on iPhone, take a look at our guide to customizing your Lock Screen in iOS 16.

Third-party browsers free from WebKit

Another potential spillover from the EU’s Digital Markets Act is allowing third-party browsers such as Chrome and Firefox to use their own engines, rather than the Apple WebKit variant that the company currently demands. This would see the other browsers behave more like their web-based versions, instantly beefing up their capabilities. We’d like to see this as it would also provoke Apple to up its game with Safari.

New Control Center

We’ve seen a few rumors that iOS 17 could come with an updated version of Control Center. As is often the case, this suggests we could see a similar venture on iPadOS 17. There are no solid details on what the revamp would do, but we’d be very happy to see this underdeveloped part of the system be given some love.

That’s all we’ve found so far, but obviously, we’ll keep updating this article as new information comes to light, so be sure to check back. In the meantime, take a look at our iPad buying guide to see if you can get a good deal on a new iPad that will be the home for iPadOS 17 when it arrives.

Better support for multiple users and accounts

Lots of people share an iPad with various family members. It’s time for Apple to allow an iPad to be set up with different profiles, like a Mac can be. This would allow an iPad to have age restrictions specific to children’s accounts.

iPad