"Macs do have some security advantages, but these are becoming less significant because of two trends: malware is increasingly targeting browser plugins, not the underlying OS," he adds. That sentiment is largely a reflection of the current market share, where Windows still dominates. “There is still a lingering misperception that Macs are inherently more secure than Windows systems, because of the raw numbers of attacks," Leichter says. These new malware strains have been paving the way for an increase in sophisticated and profitable attacks aimed at macOS, namely ransomware. In 2021, we saw an overall rise in malware developed to attack macOS like ElectroRAT, Silver Sparrow, and XLoader.
In 2020, Forbes reported that Mac malware outpaced Windows by 2 to 1.
Fortunately, we have not yet seen a major breach. Since then, there have been repeated attempts and a few ransomware attacks aimed at macOS. In 2019, threat actors took a run at macOS and threats jumped by 60%. To highlight this problem, Ponemon’s Third Annual Study of Endpoint Risk reported that 80% of breaches involved new or evolved malware variants that infiltrate a system unrecognized or exploit undisclosed vulnerabilities. Apple has done a good job of building security into macOS to stop known attacks, but the real challenge is in stopping new, never-before-seen malware (the unknowns) that can lead to ransomware or zero-day attacks. While it may be true that macOS computers are more secure than Windows-based machines, the advantage is less than you might think.
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