I recommend Sophos.
It works well and is very “quiet” no invasive pop ups and performance hit.
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I consider BitDefender the best choice. It has a consistently high rating and a reasonable price.
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Thanks for the reply. This forum is a very reliable place as well as helpful due to people like you, @TheMarty and others. It really is appreciated
@MacExpert I know this is your job and I am taking up your time, but I hope I can return the favor some way some time. I have a question, it seems my Mac is clean, but is it possible for a bad actor to instal a virus on ones ROUTER via a Mac without a trace being left on the Mac? I know it is very tricky thing, just is it possible?
Yes, it is possible to change the settings on a router with a script on a website or inside an email. There there are entire product lines of routers that are directly vulnerable to be hacked.
Either way this is what everyone should do on their router:
- Change default admin password to a strong one
- Disable WPS
- Upgrade the firmware frequently
Then there is the choice of brand and model. For consumers and small businesses, I recommend Peplink and Synology followed by Eero if you are comfortable with the fact that Amazon owns it.
If in doubt restore the router to factory settings and follow the 3 pieces of advice I gave above.
Hope this helps,
Rogier
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That is so kind of you. I hope I can return the favor some time and help you out in some way. I wanted to know if it was possible. Seems it is as I guessed, I assumed almost you could it makes logical sense. That helps me a lot actually. It was nice of you to add the precautions too.
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Bad actors probably don’t even need to access your Mac to do that…
Your router is connected to the internet, so they can try to directly access that device.
So next to the tips already given: disable remote (web/ssh/…) access to your router if it supports that, but you don’t need it. And even if you need it: consider using a local VPN for that instead.
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Thanks. I realize you are right. The reason I asked is that I had a very specific thing in mind and the vector would have been via Mac. That reminder though was useful.
Follow-up, six months later. I’d recommend anyone using Avast to drop it immediately, as they’ve been caught trapping user clicks/visits and reselling them via its Jumpshot subsidiary. The software appears to track users clicks and movements across the web, and collects data on things like searches on Google and Google Maps, as well as visits to specific LinkedIn pages, YouTube vids and porn websites, according to an investigation jointly published by Motherboard and PCMag.
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Avast tries to stanch the bleeding:
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Are we really surprised? You’re usually the product when something is “free”… This is bad though… good pull!
I have yet to install any MalWare or Antivirus on any Apple product going back to 2007 or so. 
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Avast collected data from people who were stupid enough to give them their consent. Data trade represented “only” 5% of Avast’s revenue.
LIke the new avatar too!
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