

- #Bitdefender 2019 for mac update
- #Bitdefender 2019 for mac manual
- #Bitdefender 2019 for mac software
That approval behavior also can’t be modified, but you can set Bitdefender to block third-party signed apps after their first attempt to access a protected folder. I tested an Apple-signed third-party app, Bare Bones’s BBEdit, and it was automatically approved and shown in the Safe Files apps list. You can add others, but ransomware typically targets only files created by users, as those require fewer permissions to modify.Īpple’s apps are all exempted from Safe Files automatic blocking, and there’s no way (or, really, reason) to block them. When Safe Files is turned on, it prevents apps from creating, modifying, or deleting anything within protected folders the starting set encompasses Desktop, Documents, Downloads, and Pictures.

The Safe Files feature passively protects selected folders against unsigned and blocked apps modifying anything within them. The company says an installation wizard should offer both Safe Files and the Time Machine protection option (which we’ll discuss next) as optional features a user can enable. You must dig into the software’s preferences and turn it on manually. In both versions 6.1 and 6.2, the default setup doesn’t activate the Safe Files feature, which provides passive ransomware protection. This behavior is what I’d expect and marks a substantial improvement. Disabling its protection, expanding the archive, and then re-enabling it also resulted in an immediate quarantine of malware files.

With version 6.2, however, as soon as I expanded the encrypted archive, Bitdefender instantly recognized the malware, moved it into quarantine, and displayed a notification about what had happened.
#Bitdefender 2019 for mac manual
A manual “Custom Scan” operation had to be performed to recognize the malware. In our previous review of version 6.1, Bitdefender’s anti-malware monitoring didn’t stop me when I decompressed macOS malware from the Objective See archive, nor when I tried to launch it.
#Bitdefender 2019 for mac update
Update : The current “2019” version of Bitdefender adds support for macOS Mojave, but does not otherwise make significant changes that would affect this review or score. While the app’s main screen warns about some security features being turned off, it still doesn’t for these. Accordingly, we’ve opted to review this updated version due to timing and the fix for a bug we found significant.īitdefender also provided more detail and a testing script for two file-protection features which are poorly explained within the app, and which were disabled by default at installation. An update fixes one of the bugs we found, the company says, and I confirmed that. When I tested version 6.1 of this software, Bitdefender fared poorly against downloaded and decompressed macOS malware. However, after that review, Bitdefender released version 6.2, which adds 200MB of free VPN service as part of the subscription price. It received the highest possible detection scores from AV-TEST and AV Comparatives: 100 percent from AV-TEST for detection of macOS potentially unwanted applications (PUA), and above 99 percent for identifying Windows malware.īut those scores don’t tell the whole story.
#Bitdefender 2019 for mac software
If you look at the lab ratings for Bitdefender Antivirus for Mac, you could easily assume that the software package nails its focus on malware protection.
