Welcome to “Ask a security trainer,” the column where the Digital Security Training team at Freedom of the Press Foundation (FPF) answers your burning questions at the intersection of journalism and security. Let’s jump right into this week’s question.

Dear DST,

I just got a new laptop and want to protect it from viruses. Which antivirus should I get?

Signed,

Joe Kaspersky (no relation)

Dear Joe,

It depends on what kind of laptop you have.

If you're on a PC running Windows 10 or 11:

Great news! You already have great antivirus protection built-in, without a subscription. You can use it right now, by going to Windows > Settings > Privacy & Security > Windows Security > Virus & threat protection.

To keep your built-in antivirus up to date, simply run your Windows updates; among them will be “Definition Updates” which help Windows Security know what to look out for with the latest discovered malware. Also, running your updates will generally include a lot of other important security fixes.

If you’re on a PC running Windows 8 or 7:

Bad news, your version of Windows is no longer getting security updates and is an easy target for malware. Spend your antivirus money on the upgrade to Windows 11.

If you're on a Mac:

First, I’ll make a hot take: Viruses exist for both PCs and Macs. If you use a Mac, you’re not automatically immune to viruses targeting macOS, which absolutely exist and are real, like rooftops getting dented by space debris are also real.

If you are a journalist, you are in a special class of people at elevated risk of being targeted with malware specifically designed for your device — that includes Macs. That being said, compared to Windows, Mac viruses are, for now, relatively rare. There’s a number of economic and technical reasons for this.

The economic reasons: There’s much, much more loot to pillage from big business computers running Linux or Windows than there is to take from someone’s random MacBook. There’s also fewer Macs in the world than there are every other kind of modern computer.

As for the technical reasons, modern Macs come with safeguards which prevent random software from modifying the operating system or even getting to run without explicit permission from that Mac’s owner, such as Gatekeeper and XProtect Remediator, which scans for known Mac malware.

You’re probably fine not having antivirus on your Mac (if you are up to date on macOS updates and get your apps from the macOS app store).

Additionally, introducing a third party antivirus vendor to potentially surveil every single file on your Mac may introduce more risk than it’s worth.

Securely yours,

David Huerta