A New Reality for iOS and macOS

January 2, 2023

The news about Flashback shocked the entire cybersecurity and IT technology industry. Trust in Mac OS, which was considered a refuge from viruses, instantly disappeared. And this was not an isolated case. In April 2012, a new Trojan for Mac OS X was discovered.

In addition, vulnerabilities continue to evolve today. In August 2022, Apple released security updates for iOS 15.6.1, iPadOS 15.6.1 and macOS Monterey 12.5.1. The fixed vulnerabilities give the hacker full administrative access to the device. This allows a cybercriminal to impersonate the owner of the device and subsequently run any software on his behalf.

Moreover, a new Global Threat Report for 2022 from Elastic Security Labs showed that 48% of all malware for macOS comes from a single application. The researchers said that the MacKeeper application, designed to protect and improve the performance of the device, delivers 48% of malware that targets macOS to Apple computers.

Increasing the number of malware

However, Mac or iPhone are still safe compared to other devices: their built-in protection is still better than others. According to Atlas VPN, malware development for macOS increased by more than 1,000% in 2020, with a total of 674,273 malware samples created. Windows statistics are much worse – more than 91 million samples.

The Flashback incident led to a rapid increase in the number of attacks. For example, from 2012 to 2013, the growth rate of malware infection increased by more than 2 times – from 82.62 million to 165.81 million incidents. In addition, the financial losses caused by cybercriminals increased by more than 200 million.

Currently, many factors contribute to this growth. Among others, these include:

the growth of remote work (there are more attack surfaces);

special operation in Ukraine;

cheap cyberattack services “on request”.

The IBM Cost of a Data Breach 2022 report showed that 83% of organizations have ever experienced a data breach. These new realities make security not only the main task of the business, but also a key element of the overall business strategy.