Premium subscribers also get alerts when new devices join the network, which can help monitor for potential intruders.

In the two years since then, Avast renamed the product Avast Premium Security, but its protection is as strong as ever.

In early 2020, the company suffered a huge privacy black eye related to data collection that has since been ameliorated.

AV-Test most recently tested Avasts malware capabilities in March 2020.

In December 2019, it also had a 100 percent detection rate from 145 samples.

Here, too, Avast received high marks earning 100 percent malware protection from 585 samples of Mac malware.

Not a huge surprise considering Avast is equally effective on Windows.

In our own spot tests, Avast did very well detecting everything we tried the minute it was unzipped.

It also prevented some online threats as soon as they were downloaded.

The web threat test we used isnt something the average user is likely to see.

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Still, its nice to know that Avast can act as a final line of defense.

As before, Avasts Web shield doesnt rely on plugins and does an effective job.

To make any adjustments to web protection, users have to jump into Preferences Core Shields.

Avast calls its primary protection modules Core Shields: File Shield, Web Shield, Email Shield, and Real Site.

Web Shield and Real Site comprise the web browsing protections.

From the primary dashboard all you can do with any of these shields is turn them on or off.

To adjust them, you need to dip into Preferences Core Shields.

Here you can add exceptions for any of the shields, save Real Site, which appears to be inaccessible by the user.

There isnt much here the average user would want to turn off, but its there for power users who might need to make temporary adjustments.

Click on the Ransomware Shield from the dashboard to specify which folders you want monitored.

By default it adds Documents and Pictures, and then its up to you add to add others if needed.

This is a nice feature and helpful for those who want to get a good sense of the devices on their network.

Avast! Free Antivirus For Mac Usb