The Protection pane in the Info toolbar item provides some information about XProtect, the integrated protection system of macOS. XProtect checks each new file downloaded from your web browser, received by email, or received by instant messaging to protect the computer from any malware (or malicious software).
- The list on the left displays the list of recognized XProtect malware. By default, macOS regularly searches for new malware definitions (every 24 hours), and the list is updated if newer definitions are available.
Important: To perform a daily check for new malware definitions, the "Automatically check for updates" and "Install system data files and security updates" checkboxes must be selected in the Advanced preferences of the Software Update preferences pane.
- The list on the right displays a list of recently downloaded items tested by XProtect.