Mac malware does pose a risk that users should be aware of, but it doesn’t follow that Macs absolutely must be equipped with antivirus software. ![]() Adware and Potentially Unwanted Programs (PUPs) make up the majority of the malware detections on Macs, according to Malwarebytes. To get a feel for the number of attacks on the Mac platform, browse our complete list of Mac viruses, malware and trojans. “If you took Mac security techniques and applied them to the iOS ecosystem, with all those devices, all that value,” he said, “it would get run over to a degree dramatically worse than is already happening on the Mac.” The Mac is not meeting that bar today.”įederighi noted that Mac users don’t download as much software as iOS users, and argued that if iOS was as open to third-party downloads there would be a real problem for that platform. iOS has established a dramatically higher bar for customer protection. When the judge asked about the fact that Mac users can purchase and download software from various places on the Mac, rather than being limited to the Mac App Store, Federighi said: “Yeah, it’s certainly how we’ve done it on the Mac and it’s regularly exploited on the Mac. He even admitted that members of his family had got malware on their Macs. “Today,” he said, “we have a level of malware on the Mac that we don’t find acceptable,” Federighi revealed that 130 different cases had been documented since May 2020, and that one of these had affected more than 300,000 Macs. ![]() ![]() Even Apple software boss Craig Federighi acknowledged in May 2021 that Mac malware was a problem… although it’s worth bearing in mind that at the time he was trying to make the case for iOS’s very different approach to security. Malware authors have frequently found and exploited weaknesses, such as using obscure file formats or large file sizes that the sandbox can’t process, leaving Mac users at risk of infection.One reason for the decline in 2020 was the pandemic as restrictions were lifted, malware saw a resurgence in 2021, with the number of Mac detections soaring by more than 200 percent to an astonishing 164 million. XProtect defends Macs against various types of malware, by scanning downloaded files for signs of infection, but it needs to be regularly updated to recognize new or emerging threats - and it won’t help you if you unwittingly land on an infected or unsafe website.ĭigitally signed apps A digital certificate is always seen as proof of a file’s security and a surefire sign that the file contains no malicious code, but cybercriminals can still plant malicious code at the file completion stage, exploit security gaps to sign their malicious files with valid digital certificates, and more.Īpp Store and Sandbox app security While sandboxing adds another layer of security for Macs, not even the App Store nor sandboxed apps are 100% safe, as highlighted by the attack on the Chinese version of the App Store by the XCodeGhost Virus. XProtect Apple's basic malware detection is built directly into its Mac OS X operating system. ![]() The macOS operating system The macOS, or Mac OS X system, has existed for 40 years in various forms - it’s robust, and because of its regular updates, malware developers find it hard to keep up with the changes and write viruses that will successfully infect the Mac operating system.
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