2015 was the worst in history for OSX malware

 

A new report from Bit9 and Carbon Black details how 2015 was the worst year in history for OSX malware. In a 10 week study conducted by both organizations it was discovered that  2015 had 5 times more malware than all of 2010-2014 combined. Currently Windows is still the most targeted operating system, but with Apple gaining increased market share we are going to see more malware, including ransomware, starting to be created for Apple computers. 

 

From the report by Bit9 and Carbon Black

During the 10 week study, over 1,400 unique malware samples were collected and analyzed.  Some of the most common OSX malware in 2015 were:

Lamadai - backdoor Trojan targeting a Java vulnerability.
Kitm - ran commands on machines for victims at the Oslo Freedom Forum
Hackback - ran commands on machines for victims at the Oslo Freedom Forum
LaoShu - spam via undelivered mail parcels
Appetite - Trojan targeting government organizations
Coin Thief - stole bitcoin login credentials via cracked AngryBird applications.

This report just confirms what we have always stated at BleepingComputer.com; just because there has not been a lot of malware targeted at OSX, it is not an indication that it is more secure.  In reality it is because with the lower market share, there was not as much money to be made by the criminals when they targeted Apple. 

Now that Apple's desktop market share continues to increase, malware developers will start to increase developing OSX malware. It is time for OSX users to starting taking security seriously as a secure Apple computer is becoming a thing of the past.