Security News > 2020 > February > B-but it doesn't really get viruses! Not so, Apple fanbois: Mac malware is growing faster than nasties targeting Windows

Malicious software targeting users of Apple Macs has leapt over the last year, the security outfit said in its latest State of Malware report.

Describing this as an "Exponential" increase, the firm said that detections of nasties targeted against innocent Apple fanbois were up 400 per cent year-on-year, while adding the caveat that its Mac userbase had also grown a bit.

In its report the company said: "In 2019, we detected an average of 11 threats per Mac endpoint - nearly double the average of 5.8 threats per endpoint on Windows." This should be read in light of Malwarebytes having a relatively smaller number of Mac users than Windows users.

Malwarebytes' Thomas Reed, director of Mac and mobile, told The Register: "The increase in Mac endpoints with Malwarebytes installed only increased around 40 per cent from 2018 to 2019. So, although this growth is definitely a factor, it is far too small to account for the growth in malware."

The two Mac threats highlighted in the report were NewTab, a fake browser extension that loads ads instead of doing anything useful, and potentially unwanted programs from shady Mac developer PCVARK. NewTab was picked up by its products around 30 million times last year, Malwarebytes said.

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