Malware Threats on Macs now double that of Windows

Monkey34

Monkey34

Supreme [H]ardness
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Can we finally kill the urban legend that Macs are safer than Windows PC's? I wish I had a dollar for how many times I've heard "Apple doesn't get virus' and stuff".

"Mac threats increased exponentially against Windows PCs. The volume of Mac threats increased year-over-year by more than 400 percent"
"Macs still outpaced Windows by nearly 2:1 for threats"

Malware Threats per Endpoint on Mac Double that of Windows

2020 State of Malware Report
 
Monkey34 said:
Can we finally kill the urban legend that Macs are safer than Windows PC's? I wish I had a dollar for how many times I've heard "Apple doesn't get virus' and stuff".

"Mac threats increased exponentially against Windows PCs. The volume of Mac threats increased year-over-year by more than 400 percent"
"Macs still outpaced Windows by nearly 2:1 for threats"

Malware Threats per Endpoint on Mac Double that of Windows

2020 State of Malware Report
Click to expand...
Guess it shouldn't be too surprising as some of the people i have known that thought so highly of Mac's would constantly have their windows pcs totally bogged down with multiple virus and infections.:) It was just a matter of time lol
 
Hackers just follow the crowd. It was never a case of 'Macs are immune' despite their advertising as such - it was simply security through obscurity. There weren't enough Macs around to make it worth their time to code a Mac specific virus / hack. Now that everyone is hip and trendy with their Macs and iPhones, guess what? That's not the case anymore.

Can anyone really be surprised that it's a virus and hack free-for-all for both PCs and Macs now?
 
Microsoft spends absurd amounts of money on security, Apple doesn't and traditionally hasn't had too. Besides it's not like these are drive by infections they are carefully socially engineered popups that convince somebody to click yes, no AV/Security suite in the world can protect you against something you click YES to enough times. But yeah Apple users tend to think they are immune so they are less afraid and less cautious which leads to higher success rates. Apple has long enjoyed the rumor/image of the MAC being uninfectable and it was bound to bite them in the ass eventually.
 
Lakados said:
Microsoft spends absurd amounts of money on security, Apple doesn't and traditionally hasn't had too. Besides it's not like these are drive by infections they are carefully socially engineered popups that convince somebody to click yes, no AV/Security suite in the world can protect you against something you click YES to enough times. But yeah Apple users tend to think they are immune so they are less afraid and less cautious which leads to higher success rates. Apple has long enjoyed the rumor/image of the MAC being uninfectable and it was bound to bite them in the ass eventually.
Click to expand...

and what's funny is all the way back in 2013 shortly after the edward snowden whistle blow and they were exposing all the tools the nsa was using to spy on people they said that they had 100% success rate on hacking apple devices.
here is the proof: search "to protect and infect part 2" in google or youtube or just click the link below, really interesting stuff. not just about apple.
https://media.ccc.de/v/30C3_-_5713_...301130_-_to_protect_and_infect_part_2_-_jacob
 
I don't know, I've seen tons of destroyed Windows environments. I've worked for some all Mac shops... never saw any problem. If true (that mac threats are more than double that of Windows), I haven't seen it... that's all.
 
cjcox said:
I don't know, I've seen tons of destroyed Windows environments. I've worked for some all Mac shops... never saw any problem. If true (that mac threats are more than double that of Windows), I haven't seen it... that's all.
Click to expand...

Read the article... well, I fell for that one. Anyhow, going back to world with full knowledge that nothing has changed.
 
The difference is: Compared to Windows, malware takes about two minutes to remove under MacOS and doesn't damage the underlying OS. I can't say the same for Windows.

I think the comment:

"The trends can be skewed by users who install Malwarebytes for the first time, who might have "hundreds or thousands" of detections from existing infections from years prior."

Needs to be highlighted. As Mac users are only just starting to realize they're open to Malware infection, running software such as Malwarebytes and removing infections that have been there for years - Artificially skewing the numbers. As a tech working in the field, the number of malware infections under MacOS is largely insignificant and vastly easier to remove than malware under Windows.
 
Absalom said:
You mean the 3% out there that actually use their Macs?
Click to expand...

I currently work for a business that is all Mac (and it's not a marketing firm). IBM I believe might be the one of the largest Mac shops now (which is why the Slack move is no surprise).
 
GoldenTiger said:
Linux is another attack vector on the desktop that many gloss over. Ignorance is bliss, just wait ;). They'll come for you soon.
Click to expand...

Well fishing attacks perhaps may increase if at some point grandma and grandpa on mass are Linux desktop users.

For now Linux is without a doubt the most attacked for real. (not hay click on this link emails) The most high value targets... the lists of customer data, are all housed on Linux machines. And so far at least Linux is still in most peoples opinion the most secure OS. Not perfect but I think its hard to argue its the best we have at the moment.

Linux will run into more issues down the road... if say MS was to build a windows DE, as I think is looking more and more likely. Linux userland software is pretty secure... but to be fair the Linux servers that are rock solid don't run front facing end user software directly.
 
yeah... I think people don't really understand some of the principle differences between Windows and Linux. Not saying there aren't ways to attack, but usually the vector is a result of bad config more than some sort of built-in OS function gone awry. I'd bet triple my salary. It's not that the thought process is different, it's just there are terrible unknowns (known only to really really bad/high risk people) on the Windows side. Maybe it's gotten better ( I don't think it's gotten that much better), just have to realize that the reason for the "Windows unknowns" and those things staying "unknown" is due to how Windows views security (first, don't tell.... etc..).

I would say more, but it's pointless. Besides, Windows guys have ransomware to fight... they're busy.
 
ChadD said:
Well fishing attacks perhaps may increase if at some point grandma and grandpa on mass are Linux desktop users.

For now Linux is without a doubt the most attacked for real. (not hay click on this link emails) The most high value targets... the lists of customer data, are all housed on Linux machines. And so far at least Linux is still in most peoples opinion the most secure OS. Not perfect but I think its hard to argue its the best we have at the moment.

Linux will run into more issues down the road... if say MS was to build a windows DE, as I think is looking more and more likely. Linux userland software is pretty secure... but to be fair the Linux servers that are rock solid don't run front facing end user software directly.
Click to expand...

The odds of malware exploiting privilege escalation and accessing kernel space under Linux without considerable user input where a sudo password has been correctly configured is comparably unlikely compared to some operating systems. ;)

Hence the reason why malware is so much easier to remove under MacOS compared to Windows.
 
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Consider the source. A company that makes money selling anti-virus software and conveniently has a Mac version.

I mean, I'm not saying it's bogus, it's probably true. Didn't read the report, but I read the article and it seemed the majority of Mac issues were PUPs, not the nasty kind of stuff you find on Windows.
 
This is sad clickbait based on a highly flawed dataset.
Clickbait: "Threats per endpoint" does NOT mean more threats or more vulnerabilities. It means that there are fewer Macs in the field. This is a marketshare comparison, not a threat comparison. This is like concluding that NJ is the most populous state based on it having the highest population density while ignoring the fact that CA actually has 4x the population.
Flawed dataset: The majority of Malwarebytes customers on MacOS are doing their install in order to resolve an existing infection. The majority of Malwarebytes customers on Windows are installing onto clean machines. This is like concluding that doctors make people sick because people surveyed in waiting rooms were more likely to be sick than the athletes surveyed at a marathon.
 
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