With Sophos Home Premium (for Mac) you perform all configuration and device management from this online dashboard.

The products presence on the Mac itself is about as minimalist as you can get.

Clicking the icon in the menu bar displays a tiny status widget, along with any unread notifications.

From the widgets menu, the only local actions you can perform are checking for updates and launching a scan.

As in the Windows edition, the General sub-page controls detection of PUAs, malicious traffic detection, and overall real-time protection.

Note that the Exploits sub-page, just to the right of General for a PC, is absent.

On both Windows and macOS, Sophos offers behavior-based protection against encrypting ransomware.

Master Boot Record protection, which blocks ransomware that tries to encrypt the entire drive, is only for Windows.

Protection against spyware is one spot where Sophos offers more on the Mac.

When an unknown program tries to access the cam or mic, Sophos pops up a warning that lets you allow or block access.

Sophos doesnt fool with trusted apps like FaceTime or PhotoBooth.

Here it has detected an unknown program called Camera Recorder.

If you see popups like this for a program you launched yourself, just allow it.

Sophos will keep using those slide-in warnings until you open the main window and click Always Allow.

That puts the program on an internal whitelist, preventing further warnings.

When theres at least one program on the whitelist, the widgets menu expands to include the item WebcamMicrophone Exceptions.

Clicking one of its submenu items removes the corresponding program from the whitelist.

Like the free edition, Sophos Home Premium includes a simple parental control content filter.

Sophos Home Vs Antivirus For Mac