<story><title>Apple Mac computers targeted by ransomware and spyware</title><url>http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-40261693</url></story><parent_chain><item><author>caseyohara</author><text>I use a Mac for work and personal, and I feel like I take the reasonable precautions to avoid malware&amp;#x2F;ransomware&amp;#x2F;spyware&amp;#x2F;*ware (ex. prefer the App Store when possible, only download stuff from trusted sources, etc.) What more can I do to be safe? In 2017, is it recommended to use some kind of antivirus on a Mac? I&amp;#x27;ve always been told it&amp;#x27;s unnecessary, but it seems like nefarious software is becoming more commonplace on the Mac.</text></item></parent_chain><comment><author>mayoff</author><text>Use a cloud-based backup service like BackBlaze or CrashPlan that saves old versions of your files. Since these backups are not connected like regular read-write hard drives, there should be no way for the ransomware to encrypt or delete the old versions.</text></comment>
<story><title>Apple Mac computers targeted by ransomware and spyware</title><url>http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-40261693</url></story><parent_chain><item><author>caseyohara</author><text>I use a Mac for work and personal, and I feel like I take the reasonable precautions to avoid malware&amp;#x2F;ransomware&amp;#x2F;spyware&amp;#x2F;*ware (ex. prefer the App Store when possible, only download stuff from trusted sources, etc.) What more can I do to be safe? In 2017, is it recommended to use some kind of antivirus on a Mac? I&amp;#x27;ve always been told it&amp;#x27;s unnecessary, but it seems like nefarious software is becoming more commonplace on the Mac.</text></item></parent_chain><comment><author>jorvi</author><text>If you seek a heuristic way to prevent ransomware on Mac, RansomWhere[1] by Objective-See is awesome and free of charge. It constantly monitors the file system, and if it sees a sudden burst of encryption, will freeze the concerning process. Yes, you&amp;#x27;ll &amp;#x27;lose&amp;#x27; at least a few files, but major loss is prevented. Obviously, you&amp;#x27;ll need to turn it temporarily off if you want to do any legit encryption.
[1] &lt;a href=&quot;https:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;objective-see.com&amp;#x2F;products&amp;#x2F;ransomwhere.html&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;https:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;objective-see.com&amp;#x2F;products&amp;#x2F;ransomwhere.html&lt;/a&gt;</text></comment>