The amount of malware on macOS is outpacing Windows for the first time ever, this is according to cybersecurity software company Malwarebytes’ latest State of Malware report
The statistics that you can see below are the result of an analysis done in 2019 on a target of users of the anti-malware software of the company.
MacOS suffers about twice the number of attacks detected for Windows
Specifically, They found an average of 11 threats per Mac devices, which is about twice the 5.8 average on Windows.
For the first time, Apple’s product has surpassed its Microsoft counterpart in this race. Considering an average of 4.8 threats published last year, we have seen a rather worrying increase.
However, according to Malwarebytes’ own observations, the number of MacOS users who installed the anti-malware in question has also significantly increased.
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“People need to understand that they’re not safe just because they’re using a Mac,” Thomas Reed, Malwarebytes’ director of Mac and mobile and contributor to the report, told Recode.
Windows machines still dominate the market share and tend to have more security vulnerabilities, which has for years made them the bigger and easier target for hackers. But as Apple’s computers have grown in popularity, hackers appear to be focusing more of their attention on the versions of macOS that power them. Malwarebytes said there was a 400 percent increase in threats on Mac devices from 2018 to 2019.
“There is a rising tide of Mac threats hitting a population that still believes that ‘Macs don’t get viruses,’” Reed said. “I still frequently encounter people who firmly believe this, and who believe that using any kind of security software is not necessary, or even harmful. This makes macOS a fertile ground for the influx of new threats, whereas it’s common knowledge that Windows PCs need security software.”
Also, the report says, the types of threats differ between operating systems. While Windows devices were more prone to “traditional” malware, the top 10 Mac threats were adware and potentially unwanted programs.
