Mac threats exceeded their Windows counterparts for the first time in 2019, according to the "State of Malware" report from endpoint protection and remediation solutions provider Malwarebytes.
Key findings from the State of Malware report included:
- Malwarebytes identified an average of 11 threats per Mac endpoint in 2019; comparatively, the company detected an average of 5.8 threats per endpoint on Windows.
- Mac threats rose more than 400 percent year over year.
- Adware increased 463 percent year over year for businesses and 13 percent for consumers.
- The volume of global threats against business endpoints rose 13 percent year over year.
- Ransomware activity against businesses reached an all-time high.
In addition, Malwarebytes offered various cybersecurity predictions for 2020 in its report, including:
- Ransomware attacks will occur at a rapid pace, due in part to diverse attack vectors.
- The number of exploits and zero-day attacks against Chrome and Chromium-based browsers will increase.
- Cybercriminals will increasingly leverage hybrid attacks with multi-stage payloads to mine for cryptocurrency or spread more malware than ever before.
Malware is problematic, but new tools are available to help organizations identify and resolve malware attacks.
VMRay, for example, offers automated malware analysis and detection solutions. The company in September raised $10 million in Series B funding and is using the funding to expand its marketing, bolster its engineering efforts and support its MSSP and VAR partners.
Furthermore, endpoint security company Carbon Black in August unveiled the Binee open-source binary emulator for real-time malware analysis. Organizations can use Binee to identify and assess the behavioral attributes of malware and perform run-time analysis of malware on Windows, OS X and Linux.
