[masraum]

Originally Posted by Alan A

Xprotect is built in.

Interesting. This was the first time that I'd heard of it. But I assume that's because it's not something that you install. Like you said, it's already there. I've always (in my MS days) had admin rights. At some point after I moved to Mac, I disabled admin rights for my user after creating an admin user. I think that's another layer of protection. I don't natively have full access and the OS will ask me to elevate my access.

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

Apple operates a threat intelligence process to quickly identify and block malware.
Three layers of defense

Malware defenses are structured in three layers:

1. Prevent launch or execution of malware: App Store, or Gatekeeper combined with Notarization

2. Block malware from running on customer systems: Gatekeeper, Notarization, and XProtect

3. Remediate malware that has executed: XProtect

The first layer of defense is designed to inhibit the distribution of malware, and prevent it from launching even once—this is the goal of the App Store, and Gatekeeper combined with Notarization.

The next layer of defense is to help ensure that if malware appears on any Mac, it’s quickly identified and blocked, both to halt spread and to remediate the Mac systems it’s already gained a foothold on. XProtect adds to this defense, along with Gatekeeper and Notarization.

Finally, XProtect acts to remediate malware that has managed to successfully execute.