Is your Mac fleet secure? Tackling the myth of inherent mac security
There’s a dangerous myth among some Mac users that, unlike Windows, the platform is impervious to malware. Since nothing is bulletproof, it would be dangerous to assume Mac fleet security, so let’s recognize why Macs have historically been low risk and why that looks to be changing.
Attackers are opportunists – Windows is the largest attack surface
The first information humans trust is personal memory. When trying to determine whether your systems are likely to get compromised by malware, you think of the assets you’ve seen infected before, and then, any major news you’ve read about malware campaigns. This memory shortcut of recalling examples to assess a risk is what behavioral economists call the “availability heuristic”. It often leads people to make inaccurate conclusions about the true likelihood that an event will take place and why the stories haven’t reached them.
Some IT administrators infer that they don’t need to monitor their Macs because “they are so much more secure than Windows”. The relative rarity of Mac malware, by comparison, doesn’t indicate bulletproof security, but rather a lower assumed rate of success. Since ninety percent of desktop computers sold over the past decade have been Windows, organized criminal groups and opportunistic malware authors have maximized their chances of success by targeting Windows systems the vast majority of the time. That is, until employee demand drove enterprises to start supporting thousands of Macs and a dramatic increase in Mac malware followed.
Many Mac users are high-value targets in the organization
*** This is a Security Bloggers Network syndicated blog from Uptycs Blog authored by Matt Hathaway. Read the original post at: https://www.uptycs.com/blog/is-your-mac-fleet-secure
