Malwarebytes recently released its 2020 State of Malware Report and it states that the number of threats on Mac endpoints surpassed Windows for the first time ever this past year.
On average, Mac threats showed a huge 400% increase, according to the security firm. In fact, Malwarebytes claims that the number of Mac threat detections rose from 4.8 in 2018 to 11 per endpoint in 2019. To put that in perspective, the firm points out that the number of threats per endpoint on Windows was 5.8 in 2019.
The top Mac threats include adware and potentially unwanted programs (PUPs). In case you are wondering, PUP largely refers to software that shows irrelevant ads, popups, and toolbars. Cleaning apps that promise to make your PC faster but end up consuming resources, which in turn impacts the overall performance are also considered to be PUPs.
“Macs differ drastically from Windows in terms of the types of threats seen. Where we found several different categories and families in our top detections of Windows threats that classify as traditional malware, especially those aimed at businesses, most Mac threats, and certainly the most prevalent ones of 2019, are families of adware and potentially unwanted programs (PUPs),” states the report.
NewTab Adware and PUP PCVARK top the list for Mac. The NewTab adware redirects search queries performed in the browser so that the malicious actors would earn affiliate revenue. It exists in the form of apps and Safari extensions. Take a look at the list of top detections on Mac below:
On the Windows side of things, adware, Trojan, RiskwareTool, HackTool, and CrackTool are the top detections in the consumer market while Adware, Trojan, RiskwareTool, Backdoor, and Hijacker top the list in the business market.
Judging by the harm caused by the nature of these threat detections, it appears like Windows still remains to be the most vulnerable, despite the increased number of threats on Mac. What are your thoughts on this? Let us know in the comments.
