I meant to post awhile ago regarding my concerns about Kaspersky, though I found this post and figured I would reply here (though this is relevant independent of guest or host OS) . Some of the reasons I do not use commercial anti-malware software are that: 1. The software gives access for some party to continuously read your files, doing who knows what; 2. Many major anti-malware/anti-virus companies have had their code analyzed by foreign governments in order to sell in those countries; and 3. Some companies are distributing malicious software and have close association to foreign governments (for example with Kaspersky).
Given the history of Kaspersky, I am astounded the US government foolishly had Kaspersky software installed on so many computers, without using common sense.
(As a side note, two of the main threats to a computer are physical access and remote access (usually with malware delivered via a browser or email client). This is actually one reason conducting these 2 activities in a virtual machine is useful, to contain potential damage).
I noticed "Install Antivirus for Mac" appears in the menu for Parallels Desktop:
1. Does the software apply only to virtual machines, or to the host OS also?
2. How can check whether or not Kaspersky or the other bundled software was already downloaded (or inadvertently installed by clicking the install menu item) by Parallels to my host (MacOS)? Is there a specific background process to check for? Where does Parallels install Kaspersky?
3. Is there something Kaspersky related in the contents of the Parallels Desktop.app file to look for?
If someone accidentally clicks the install button, then they will have accidentally installed malicious software onto their machine. Aside from obvious security reasons, my feedback would be as a paid user, I would not expect these kinds of advertisements as popups or menu items in software like Parallels.
Last edited: Feb 22, 2018