Developers of legitimate programs don't always name processes in a way that makes it clear what they are. Even if you suspect malware, it's unwise to delete any processes until you're sure what they are. If there are processes that you don't recognize using lots of resources, that's a sign that malware may be present. Once it's open, you can see a list of all the programs and processes using processing power on your Mac. If you’re concerned, you can do a bit of investigative work using your Mac's built-in Activity Monitor tool.

Your Mac behaves in a way it doesn't usually.

It heats up even when you're not doing anything that would use lot of processing power.

Be wary if your Mac displays any of the following behaviors: Malware is not always immediately obvious, but there are red flags to look out for. If this has happened to you, read on for advice about how to remove it. Unfortunately, things can slip through the net, and you can still end up with malware on your Mac.

This may be due to security patches, cleaner software, or increased user awareness of the threat of malware. In the year up to November, only 17,210 pieces of malware have been found, or 1,434 per month. Thankfully, this figure doesn’t seem quite as high in 2021. In addition, there were 48,000 pop-up ads identified. This is more than 56,000 pieces of malware per month. According to independent security institute AVTest, there were 670,000 pieces of malware targeting macOS in 2020. But now the popularity of Macs is part of the reason that new types of malware are developed every day. The previous lack of viruses and malware is part of the reason Macs have become so popular and a status symbol. This is highly effective, as Apple does a good job of keeping its list of malware and other malicious programs up to date.

There is also another piece of software called XProtect, which runs in the background on Macs and constantly scans for malware. One of the biggest reasons for this is that Apple has written software specifically to control which programs can be run on their devices, named Gatekeeper. There's no doubt that for a long time, Mac users didn't have to worry about viruses and malware.

How to remove mac viruses for free