New Report Shows 1,100% Surge in MacOS Malware

A shocking report that was just published by Atlas VPN shows that new malware infections developed specifically for macOS saw a whopping increase of almost 1,100% verses 2019.

The report, which was created through a partnership between Atlas VPN and AV-TEST, showed a record number of new malware created for macOS in 2020. According to the numbers, Mac malware threats grew by an average of 1,847 new threats daily last year.

For the entire year, a total of 674,273 new malware was found for Mac, up from 55,556 in 2019.

Mac Malware Increase Chart 2012-2021 YTD - Source: AV-Test and Atlas VPN

The report also showed that in recent history, specifically the years 2018 and 2017, macOS malware numbers were 92,570 and 28,949, respectively.

The surge is due in part to the fact that in recent years, malware has become easier for hackers to engineer. In fact, nowadays hackers don't even need to possess much technical programming skill as many have taken to just purchasing and slightly modifying existing malware code to create new threats. Not to mention, recent Mac malware surges, such as from the Silver Sparrow and '[APP NAME] will damage your computer. You should move it to the Trash' threats, have emerged to create mass hysteria among MacOS computer users.

Mac Malware Numbers Are Up, But Hackers Still Focused on PC's

The study does confirm that the malware threat to Mac users is growing exponentially, however, Windows users still face a harsher terrain. The stats for Windows showed over 91 million new malware threats, or an average of nearly 250,000 new Windows malware threats per day. Additionally, prior to the close of the 1st quarter of 2021, the report also showed that there were 33 million new malware threats so far this year.