Malware threats against Macs outpaced those for Windows for the first time ever in 2019. Malwarebytes revealed the trend in its latest State of Malware report, released Tuesday.
400 Percent Increase in Mac Malware Detections
Malwarebytes said Mac threats increased over 400 percent in 2019 compared to the year before. It detected, on average, 11 threats per Mac endpoint during 2019. By contrast, it detected 5.8 threat per Windows endpoint.
The threats for Macs “differ drastically” from those deployed against Windows, the reports said. While the threats against Windows tend to be more traditional, the most detected ones for Macs were adware and potentially unwanted programs (PUPs). “A rise in pre-installed malware, adware and multi-vector attacks signals that threat actors are becoming more creative and increasingly persistent with their campaigns,” according to Marcin Kleczynski, CEO of Malwarebytes.
Adware.NewTab was the most detected piece of Mac malware, with approaching 30 million detections during the year. Meanwhile, the most common Mac threat family, OSX.Generic fell to become the 30th most detected Mac-specific threat.
I was aware of the fact that Mac malware threats are going upwords but I was not aware that it has increased over 400 percent in 2019 compared to the year before. Surely, people now understand and acknowledge the fact that Mac can also get a virus and can be hacked. The easiest way to protect your Mac is to only download files from trusted sources and you should have a reliable Antivirus program installed on your Mac. A good Antivirus would surely help your Mac stay safe from viruses and hackers and you should do your work without dealing with such nightmare situation.
Is there any ransomware for Mac? Any reference about that? Thanks!