In fact, Malwarebytes, an antivirus company, saw a 400-percent increase in Mac malware in 2019 compared to 2018. Macs have grown in popularity, and cybercriminals saw that as an opportunity to target more people, focusing their efforts in creating malware for Apple computers. While that may have been true 20 years ago, it no longer applies today. There’s even a myth that Macs are safe from malware, mainly because most viruses are designed for Windows. A PC malware designed to exploit a Windows vulnerability, for example, does no harm on a Mac computer.

Here’s one thing many people don’t know about computer viruses: Many of them only attack specific operating systems. Keeping macOS up-to-date helps patch security vulnerabilities.Read our Bitdefender review, a top-rated software with 100-percent virus detection rate. Macs need third-party antivirus for total protection.

Macs have built-in antivirus and security software, but they aren’t foolproof.

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. 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 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.Ī 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. 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.Īpple's basic malware detection is built directly into its Mac OS X operating system.

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