Does the A/V on my MacBook protect my Windows 10 guest as well?

[MikeW7]

My company, Helix Business Solutions, is updating our security policies and procedures. Most of our engineers run MacBooks + Parallels with Windows 10 as a guest OS. An open question we have is whether it's necessary to have firewall/antivirus software installed on the guest if one is installed on the host. My thinking is perhaps the guest is actually using the host's protected network connections, and therefore a separate guest security suite is unnecessary. I've tried to find the answer by searching this site and generally Googling, but haven't come up with the answer yet.

If there's an official Parallels answer available, a link to it would be ideal.

Thank you in advance.

mjw

 

[RogerH6]

Probably not.
If you have something like a 'per packet' virus scanning firewall, then 'yes'. However for most standard systems, 'no'. Also the virus database on a Mac product, may well not have entries for PC virii. Then things like script exploits, these need to be checked on the actual browser being used.

 

[PaulChristopher@Parallels]

My company, Helix Business Solutions, is updating our security policies and procedures. Most of our engineers run MacBooks + Parallels with Windows 10 as a guest OS. An open question we have is whether it's necessary to have firewall/antivirus software installed on the guest if one is installed on the host. My thinking is perhaps the guest is actually using the host's protected network connections, and therefore a separate guest security suite is unnecessary. I've tried to find the answer by searching this site and generally Googling, but haven't come up with the answer yet.

If there's an official Parallels answer available, a link to it would be ideal.

Thank you in advance.

mjw

Hi @MikeW7,
Parallels provide you with the opportunity to install virtual machine and any operating system inside the virtual machine, but like on any other computer you need to protect yourself from any malware. So, we would like to recommend you to install any security software in your virtual machine.

 

[MikeW7]

Probably not.
If you have something like a 'per packet' virus scanning firewall, then 'yes'. However for most standard systems, 'no'. Also the virus database on a Mac product, may well not have entries for PC virii. Then things like script exploits, these need to be checked on the actual browser being used.

This is a terrific answer. Not the answer I was hoping for, but simple, concise, and correct. Thank you!

mjw