Intego Mac Internet Security X9 review
Our Verdict
Intego Mac Internet Security X9 shines brightly in a couple of areas, but it ultimately doesn't concord upwardly to the all-time Mac antivirus apps.
For
- Solid malware protection
- Baking fast scans
- First-class legacy macOS back up
Confronting
- Expensive
- Limited feature set
- Disjointed user interface
Tom'due south Guide Verdict
Intego Mac Net Security X9 shines brightly in a couple of areas, but it ultimately doesn't hold upward to the all-time Mac antivirus apps.
Pros
- +
Solid malware protection
- +
Blistering fast scans
- +
Excellent legacy macOS support
Cons
- -
Expensive
- -
Limited feature set
- -
Disjointed user interface
Intego Mac Internet Security X9: Specs
Malware protection: Good
Organisation impact, background: Light
System affect, scans: Fairly heavy
macOS compatibility: 10.9 Mavericks and after
Browser extensions: No
Firewall: Aye
Hardened/secure browser: No
Parental controls: No
Password manager: No
Ransomware file protection: No
Scan scheduling: Yep
Webcam protection: No
VPN: No
Support options: Email, FAQs
Intego Mac Net Security X9 offers a couple of standout features and has unbelievably fast malware scans and remarkable legacy back up going all the way dorsum to macOS 10.9. This is coupled with a solid rail record when it comes to Intego's functioning in third-party malware testing.
However, at $l a year for a single device, it is hard to recommend Intego Mac Net Security X9 over some of its competitors amid the best Mac antivirus programs. It feels akin to what you lot get for free from Avast Free Security for Mac, while something like Bitdefender Antivirus for Mac offers more features and a better user interface at a lower price. (Tom's Guide readers get half off for the first year.)
Read on for the residuum of our Intego Mac Internet Security X9 review.
Intego Mac Internet Security X9: Costs and what's covered
Intego Mac Cyberspace Security X9 is $l per twelvemonth for a single device or $93 per yr if yous pay for 2 years at once. You tin can bump upwards to a maximum of five devices for $85 per yr for a single yr or $153 for two years.
If you need coverage for both macOS and Windows, that tin be added for an additional $11 to $15. An Intego client-back up representative told u.s.a. via browser conversation that Intego created its ain Windows malware-detection engine and did non license it from another vendor.
Mac Internet Security X9 includes antivirus software, VirusBarrier X9 and a firewall, NetBarrier X9. The former covers antivirus protection against a wide variety of malware including adware, keyloggers, spyware, Trojan horses and more. The latter is aimed at monitoring your network traffic for potential security threats.
Intego also offers its Mac Premium Bundle X9, which adds a macOS arrangement cleaner for performance enhancement, parental controls and backup software. The Mac Premium Bundle starts at $85 for a single device for one year and goes upward to $269 to cover up to v devices for two years.
If you need coverage for both macOS and Windows, you can add that for an boosted $18 to $57 depending on the plan y'all choose.
The parental controls, which Intego calls ContentBarrier X9, can also be bought in a stand-alone package that starts at $eighty per twelvemonth for a single machine. As well, the system cleaner can be bought in a bundle chosen Mac Washing Machine Secure X9 starting at $65 a twelvemonth for a unmarried Mac.
Both of these bundles also include VirusBarrier X9 and NetBarrier X9, then you lot can mix and match the features y'all want.
Intego Mac Net Security X9 runs on macOS ten.9 Mavericks and above.
Intego Mac Internet Security X9: Antivirus protection
Intego covers all of the bases with its antivirus protection, referred to every bit VirusBarrier. Its antivirus scanning can be scheduled to run at regular intervals or equally one-offs, merely also every bit real-fourth dimension protection as soon as yous complete the initial setup. Any connected external drives will be included in virus scans, and optionally this tin can cover continued iOS devices likewise.
Whatever threats identified volition be shifted into the Quarantine tab inside VirusBarrier. If a known secure file is being flagged for some reason, yous can manually identify it in the Trusted Files tab to avert future false positives.
VirusBarrier will too scan your Apple Post for whatsoever threats, including Windows-based threats so that yous don't unknowingly pass on malware to Windows devices in your local network.
Intego Mac Internet Security X9: Antivirus operation
In club to determine the overall efficacy of Intego Mac Internet Security X9's malware scanning, we relied on the Federal republic of germany-based AV-Test and Republic of austria-based AV-Comparatives labs, which conduct regular evaluations of major antivirus apps and services.
During the Nov-December 2020 testing by AV-Test lab, Intego Mac Net Security X9 detected 98.5% of "widespread and prevalent" Mac malware. During this same round of testing, Avast Costless Security for Mac, Norton 360 Standard and Trend Micro Antivirus for Mac all outperformed Intego Mac Cyberspace Security X9, getting 100% each.
| AV-Test, well-nigh recent test | AV-Test, previous examination | AV-Comparatives, most recent test | AV-Comparatives, previous test | |
| Avast | 100% | 98.half-dozen% | 100% | 100% |
| Bitdefender | 97.iii% | 98.eight% | 100% | 100% |
| Intego | 98.5% | 100% | 100% | 100% |
| Kaspersky | 100% | 100% | 100% | 100% |
| Norton | 100% | 100% | Not tested | Not tested |
| Tendency Micro | 100% | 100% | 100% | 100% |
Bitdefender and Kaspersky's Mac antivirus programs were not tested at this time. In August-September 2020, Bitdefender Antivirus for Mac detected 97.3% of Mac malware; in May-June 2020, Kaspersky Internet Security for Mac detected 100%. Intego was not evaluated in either round.
Intego Mac Internet Security X9 did avert whatsoever false positives in November-December 2020, meaning all detections were accurate, merely this was true of its competitors too. It besides detected more than 99% of Windows malware.
This was an uncharacteristically poor performance for Intego Mac Cyberspace Security X9. It had previously failed to detect 100% of malware threats in AV-Test's evaluations merely once since Apr of 2017. In February-March 2020, it spotted 100% of Mac malware.
Turning to the AV-Comparatives testing, Intego Mac Cyberspace Security X9 was not part of the June 2020 testing, but it received a perfect 100% in the June 2019 and July 2018 tests. In July 2017, it roughshod just short of this mark with a 99.6% detection rate. Avast, Bitdefender, Kaspersky and Tendency Micro were all function of the June 2019 examination as well and received a perfect 100%.
Intego Mac Internet Security X9: Security and privacy features
Intego is once again quite reminiscent of Avast Free Security for Mac in that in that location simply isn't much going on with the app outside of treatment your antivirus protection — which is later all its express purpose.
Intego'south Safety Browsing On characteristic is actually just a cheque of the settings on your installed browsers. It verifies that the built-in safe-browsing feature on your browsers is active, just you can opt to have Intego ignore specific browsers if you prefer. It'southward overnice that Intego draws your attention to the matter, but evidently, this is something you could do yourself.
The other master component of Intego is the NetBarrier firewall. This looks at incoming and outgoing data from your Mac to ensure that nil malicious is being injected and that your private data isn't being rerouted somewhere unintended.
NetBarrier will apply different standards depending on whether y'all are on a domicile, work or public Wi-Fi network. Information technology will endeavour to detect the nature of the network itself, but you can alter it manually if needed.
Intego Mac Internet Security X9: Performance and organisation impact
In gild to measure the performance affect of Intego Mac Internet Security X9, we ran the Geekbench 5 benchmarking exam prior to installing the app and then ran a series of tests with the tool subsequently installation. The 2016 MacBook Pro 13-inch laptop that we used for the review had a 2.9Ghz Intel Core i5-6267U processor, 8GB of LPDDR3 RAM and a 256GB SSD with 42.18GB of files installed.
| Mail service-installation | Full browse | Quick scan | |
| Avast | 0% | 27% | three% |
| Bitdefender | 0% | 19% | one% |
| Intego | 0% | 34% | iii% |
| Kaspersky | three% | 12% | 4% |
| Norton | 0% | 12% | 0% |
| Trend Micro | 1% | 46% | 1% |
Running our Geekbench 5 test prior to installing Intego Mac Internet Security X9, the MacBook Pro achieved a score of 1,843, which only dropped to 1,838 following the installation of the app. That almost imperceptible hit was also replicated by most of the antivirus apps that I reviewed, with Kaspersky showing the biggest drop at a mere iii%.
The full scan was much less successful for Intego, resulting in a 34% operation striking. That placed information technology but ahead of Trend Micro (46%). Avast (27%) was its next closest competitor, while Bitdefender (19%) was well alee and Kaspersky (12%) and Norton (12%) showed performance impacts that were just a bit more than a tertiary of Intego's.
A quick scan went meliorate for Intego with only a iii% driblet, matching Avast (3%) and edging out Kaspersky (4%). However, that was outclassed by Bitdefender (1%), Trend Micro (ane%) and Norton (0%).
Intego Mac Net Security X9's first deep scan took vi minutes and 22 seconds and scanned 623,142 files. That was astoundingly fast. The closest full scan was Avast (10:25), and Intego was about six times faster than the slowest scan from Kaspersky (39:05). This speed probably goes a long way to explaining Intego's more significant performance hit.
Intego'south quick browse looks at the most common areas for viruses or malware. For my system, this scanned 185,491 files in just 11 seconds. This was such a preposterously fast time that I ran it several times to make certain there wasn't a mistake, but it came through nigh identically each fourth dimension.
While Norton (00:13), Bitdefender (00:xvi) and Avast (00:18) all finished within seconds of Intego, they did then while scanning far fewer files: 591, xiv,765 and 1,943 files respectively.
Intego Mac Net Security X9: Interface
Given the pretty bare-bones feature set of Intego, I feel like the app could do a meliorate job of streamlining its user interface. There are essentially just two components to the app — VirusBarrier and NetBarrier — but there's no way to access one from the other. The Intego icon in the bill of fare bar gives you access to both components along with NetUpdate, simply it's odd to non let yous admission the unabridged suite from a single window.
VirusBarrier is pretty straightforward. The main tab is Scan and it gives yous a prominent condition section confirming that your Mac is prophylactic, with the appointment and time of the last scan and a glanceable look at whether you have each of the primary features turned on.
These master features include Real-Time Scanning, Scheduled Scans and the Safe Browsing cheque. Real-Time Scanning settings are very basic, just allowing you to toggle it on or off with the selection to receive an e-mail at a specific address if anything is detected.
Scheduled Scans lets y'all choose between either a full or quick scan conducted daily or weekly. Opening upward its advanced options adds the ability to set up up multiple scans, cull monthly scans, and select specific devices to browse.
Safe Browsing, as previously mentioned, just turns on the built-in safe browsing feature on your installed browsers. Clicking Check Now displays a page confirming this with the option to ignore whatsoever of the browsers.
I find the one-off scanning to be a picayune oddly hidden. You admission a unmarried quick or full browse by clicking on the icon at the right of any listed devices in the left column of VirusBarrier.
I'd assume the reasoning is that betwixt real-time scanning and scheduled scans you should rarely need this, simply with so few features it'south a picayune odd to take to click through to see one of them.
The other two tabs in VirusBarrier are Quarantine and Trusted Files. The former will show any potential malware with the option to trust, delete or repair the files. Trusted Files, as previously mentioned, is for anything that is being flagged accidentally, and you add files to it by clicking the plus push in the lower-left corner.
NetBarrier is even more intuitive, with the primary Firewall tab showing an blitheness on the left side of the app depicting which barriers you accept in place along with the current profile you are using (Home, Work or Public Hotspot). On the right side, y'all tin can tweak whatsoever of the incoming or outgoing connections to the internet or your router including specific exceptions.
Applications is the only other tab for NetBarrier. It gives you a listing of any apps that are trying to connect to the internet, with the ability to block, allow or force a plan to ask for permission before it is able to connect. Again, you can set dissimilar rules for Abode, Piece of work or Public Hotspots.
This tin get a flake daunting to track every bit it includes everything, like mDNSResponder and other behind-the-scenes apps, that most won't be used to seeing, but it's well implemented and unproblematic enough to spot-manage whatsoever obvious offenders.
Intego Mac Internet Security X9: Installation and support
Intego Mac Internet Security X9 can be downloaded direct from the visitor's site. The DMG installation file is 100.5MB in size. The app itself then takes upwards 136.8MB on your SSD.
As with Norton 360 Standard, you need to restart your Mac earlier you can actually start using Intego. Bones installation including the time to restart my MacBook Pro was just over 4 minutes.
Setup first prompts you to choose the level of protection that you would similar. Minimum scanning protects yous only from macOS and iOS malware also as malicious scripts, while Standard and Maximum also cover Windows, Linux and Android malware as well as hacking tools and keyloggers. The primary difference between Maximum and Standard is that the former runs a Quick Browse after every malware-definition update, which is probably advisable.
You are then prompted to grant the app full-disk access. Next, you'll select NetBarrier, which just requires that you choose whether y'all are on a home, public or piece of work Wi-Fi network. Then you're all ready to go. Start-to-finish setup time should be three to five minutes.
Intego Mac Internet Security X9 doesn't offer phone support. Users can either submit a back up request and expect a response via email or attempt to find the answer in the knowledge base or user manual.
Intego Mac Internet Security X9 review: Bottom line
Intego Mac Net Security X9 is a solid Mac antivirus app, but information technology simply doesn't offer enough to concur it up to its competitors. The bland feature set and relatively high price make Intego too hard to recommend over Bitdefender Antivirus for Mac or Norton 360 Standard.
If you are drawn to the more bare-bones appearance and limited number of features, and so save yourself some money and go with Avast Security for Mac, which is free. The i truly standout characteristic for Intego is its scanning speed, and that simply isn't reason plenty to recommend an antivirus app when today the vast bulk of the piece of work is done by real-time scanning anyhow.
- The best Windows x antivirus software
- Best internet security suites
Source: https://www.tomsguide.com/reviews/intego-mac-internet-security-x9
Posted by: hamiltonthimence1951.blogspot.com
0 Response to "Intego Mac Internet Security X9 review"
Post a Comment