106 Macworld • October 2019BUYING GUIDEMalware scan results
Upon running for the first time ESET Cyber Security
instantly updated its definitions, which is something
that should be mandatory for all anti‑malware apps,
but sadly isn’t. We turned on the Removable Media
Blocking feature here too.
The full system scan took one hour and 45
minutes to complete. The scan showed about a
fifth of the progress bar was filled straight off,
which felt a little deceptive. CPU usage was light
during the scan, at around a quarter of one of
the CPU cores, and maybe 10 percent of three
other cores. Sometimes this rose slightly but not
enough to trouble the system, so users will not
be made aware a scan is running.
It seemed ESET is aware of how long scans take
because on option in the app’s preferences dialog
box is to shutdown computer after scan.
A second full scan took as long as the first, so
there’s probably no clever caching system that
lets some antivirus apps know which files haven’t
changed, and that therefore don’t need to be
scanned afresh.
Unleashing the 26 malware samples onto our
computer showed that ESET Cyber Security caught
nearly all of them, with the exception of Adwind.
VirusTotal reports that ESET should catch this
malware, which might indicate a peculiarity with
our malware sample – although we note that most
other anti‑malware apps caught it just fine.
The alert notifications that appeared were
informative, telling us where the malware was106 Macworld • October 2019
BUYING GUIDE
Malware scan results
Upon running for the first time ESET Cyber Security
instantlyupdateditsdefinitions,whichissomething
thatshouldbemandatoryforallanti‑malware apps,
but sadly isn’t. We turned on the Removable Media
Blocking feature here too.
The full system scan took one hour and 45
minutes to complete. The scan showed about a
fifth of the progress bar was filled straight off,
which felt a little deceptive. CPU usage was light
during the scan, at around a quarter of one of
the CPU cores, and maybe 10 percent of three
other cores. Sometimes this rose slightly but not
enough to trouble the system, so users will not
be made aware a scan is running.
It seemed ESET is aware of how long scans take
because on option in the app’s preferences dialog
box is to shutdown computer after scan.
A second full scan took as long as the first, so
there’s probably no clever caching system that
lets some antivirus apps know which files haven’t
changed, and that therefore don’t need to be
scanned afresh.
Unleashing the 26 malware samples onto our
computer showed that ESET Cyber Security caught
nearly all of them, with the exception of Adwind.
VirusTotal reports that ESET should catch this
malware, which might indicate a peculiarity with
ourmalwaresample– althoughwenotethatmost
otheranti‑malware apps caught it just fine.
The alert notifications that appeared were
informative, telling us where the malware was