Features
The free and premium versions of Sophos Home offer AI-based web protection and Remote Management. But, the premium package provides more personal protection and live chat. With this version of the antivirus program, there is a significantly higher level of encryption than the free option.
General features
Sophos Home Mac offers a minimal list of security features compared to other antivirus suites. This product does provide a notification when an app tries to use your microphones or webcam. It also encrypts your keystrokes to prevent keyloggers from stealing your important information.
The keystroke encryption Sophos uses makes keylogging malware record random characters and not your actual keystrokes. The webcam feature only provides a quick alert that someone has accessed your webcam. But, it doesn't stop it from being accessed.
Sophos Home Mac doesn't have many features that other antiviruses might have, like a VPN, computer optimization tools, or dark web monitoring. But, for a basic antivirus with a few features for securing your microphone, keystrokes, and webcam, Sophos Home Mac is a good option.
Threat Protection
Sophos Home Mac aims to remove any Windows malware that might get onto your Mac. The goal of this is to make sure Macs don't start carrying Windows infections. Sophos was tested against currently known Windows malware.
This product could detect and eliminate 63% of the malware, which is a decrease in the amount of malware it removed previously. This isn't too big of an issue because this malware can't cause direct harm to your Mac.
As an antivirus protection system, Sophos Home Mac does an excellent job in detecting threats during testing. Its real-time protection detected 100% of malware designed to attack Macs, even the newest threats.
Scanning
All the important security features are included when you get Sophos Home Mac. That includes protection from malware and ransomware based on artificial intelligence, management from your mobile device, web protection, webcam protection, and parental controls. These features are intuitive and have an on/off switch.
Before getting Sophos Home Mac, you should know it doesn't have advanced web protection. However, it does have parental controls, remote management, real-time antivirus protection, and basic web protection.
Performance and Protection
With Sophos Home Mac, you'll get many protective measures. You won't have to worry about any threats from spyware to phishing.
Malware Protection
Sophos has stated that its scanner can detect, block, and eliminate malware and other cyber threats. To corroborate this claim, Sophos Home Mac was tested with hundreds of malware samples. Some of them were common, and others were recently created.
During a full system scan, Sophos Home Mac software detected 97% of malware, some of which are new threats. This product has proven it's excellent at detecting malware.
During a test of the artificial intelligence (AI) real-time anti-malware engine, all malware programs were detected and blocked from running. Sophos Home Mac has shown that it has impressive malware scanning and detection capabilities.
Yet, this scanner doesn't have all the functions that other antiviruses do, like a quick or custom scan. Sophos does protect against malware on USB drives; you can scan or skip folders and files on the drive..
Ransomware Detection
Sophos Home Mac premium has ransomware protection. The protection provided is not as good for Mac as it is for Windows, even though the same technique is used to detect ransomware. It doesn't offer the protection users need to have their Macs fully protected from a dangerous ransomware equivalent of Petya; from which a hacker can make your Mac unusable by encrypting your hard drive.
Phishing Detection
Sophos says its web protection will keep phishing pages disguised as legit websites from harming your Mac. During testing, several dangerous URLs were visited, and Sophos blocked 100% of them. There weren't any false positives during testing. It's unlikely you'll need to whitelist any popular sites. If you do need to whitelist a site, you can do so easily.
Sophos Home Mac also has a setting to help prevent phishers from stealing your information when you're online banking. Sophos also has a feature that provides a reputation score based on users' feedback for everything you download.
To use Sophos's web protection, you don't need to download a separate browser extension. You just need to install and set up Sophos Home Mac; there's no need to worry about extra downloads.
Spyware Detection
Webcams are a standard piece of equipment in most modern Macs, but spyware protection keeping unwanted parties from accessing it without your knowledge isn’t. Sophos Home Mac offers protection for your webcam; it also protects your microphone. On your Mac, you'll need to click to allow or stop access to the program. If not, the notification will persist. With smart webcam protection, Sophos Home Mac provides you with complete control over your webcam use.
Firewall Protection
Sophos Home Mac has a built-in firewall; with this next-gen software, you won't be exposed to online threats. You also won't experience problems from system weaknesses or vulnerabilities. This state-of-the-art firewall gets constant upgrades to meet technological advancements.
Privacy and Security
Sophos Home Mac premium can protect up to 10 of your devices. However, they don't provide a password manager, device optimization tools, secure cloud storage, or a VPN. What Sophos does have is identity protection and browser protection through blocking malicious sites and basic content filtering. As mentioned earlier in this review, Sophos Home will protect your Mac from unauthorized use of your webcam and microphone. You'll also be able to manage your devices remotely.
Identity protection
Along with being a great antivirus, Sophos Home Mac premium provides additional features to help fight identity theft. It blocks anyone on your protected devices from visiting or shopping at millions of compromised or malicious websites created by hackers. Sophos will prevent your banking and credit card details from being intercepted by a third party or a keystroke logger.
This software will also stop apps from sharing your data without your knowledge. This feature will safeguard all of your usernames and passwords against malware. No single precaution will make you invulnerable to identity theft, but Sophos Home Mac helps you have several safeguards in place to lower the chance of it happening to you.
Browser Protection
Sophos has simple web protection aiming to keep users safe from malicious sites. This feature only works with a few browsers; Edge, Safari, Firefox, and Chrome. Sophos Home Mac caught all malicious links provided during testing and provided notifications to show the problem. If it has flagged a site you’re trying to go to, you can press a button to allow you to access the site anyway.
Content Filtering
This is a basic filtering feature; it allows you to block by site type, including a few content areas, such as violence and drugs. All topics are enabled by default, but you can change that with a simple click.
There are several issues when it comes to this content filtering feature. You can whitelist websites that it should never block, but Sophos Home Mac doesn't allow you to blacklist websites that shouldn't be available.
Content filtering is easy to set up, and you can start limiting access to topics that are inappropriate quickly. Once you've set your filters, any attempt to visit a site in a blocked category will send you a desktop notification and a browser message saying Sophos Home Mac blocked access to that website.
Like the browser protection, the content filter only blocks access in some browsers, so if an unsupported browser is used, anyone can still access inappropriate content.
