Apple macOS malware protection overhaul: detection is more aggressive, run once a day

CTOnews.com, Sept. 1-Apple has made major updates to its macOS malware tool in the past six months, according to updates tracked by Eclectic Lighting Company's Howard Oakley.

"macOS malware protection has changed more in the past six months than in the past seven years." Malware detection on Mac is now "completely proactive" and as active as "many commercial protection products".

Around the launch of the macOS 12.3 Monterey, Apple quietly launched a new XProtect Remediator tool for its XProtect service that can check for malware in the background, the report said. XProtect Remediator looks for malware more frequently and fixes it when it is detected.

CTOnews.com learned that Apple's Mac was previously equipped with malware removal tools (MRT) and XProtect, but XProtect was limited to checking applications and code against a list of known malware, and MRT rarely ran. Apple's new solution is more aggressive and provides more protection.

Xproduct Remediator is available on Mac running macOS Monterey, macOS Big Sur, and macOS Catalina, but not on Mac running older versions of macOS.

The new XProtect feature is updated regularly, running at least once a day, and sometimes more frequently, and scanning is most likely performed when Mac is awake but not active. For some malware checks, it runs every hour or two and can identify a range of malware, such as Adload, DubRobber, Pirrit, SnowDrift, Trovi, and so on.