Cybercriminals are making up for lost time when it comes to creating malware for Macs, according to a report by Bit9 + Carbon Black.
A 10-week long study of 1,400 unique OS X malware samples found that the number of instances in 2015 alone is five times greater than in the previous five years combined. The researchers credited this growth to Apple's success in boosting its market share among consumers and corporations.
“Based on the observations in the 10-week analysis, the Bit9 + Carbon Black Threat Research Team confidently expects Mac OS X malware attacks to accelerate in the coming months,” the report stated.
Researchers observed most of the malware leveraging one of seven distinct persistence techniques in order to remain active on a system, including LaunchAgents, LaunchDaemons, Cron job, Login items, Browser plugins, StartupItems and Binary infection.
