The number of phishing attacks on Apple computers has more than doubled in the past year

The company Kaspersky, which deals with computer security, published information about the fact that over the last year the total number of phishing attacks against users of the macOS platform has increased significantly. This is a more than two-fold increase year-on-year.

According to Kaspersky data, which reflects only the user base whose members have some Kaspersky software installed on their Macs, the number of attacks using fake emails has increased the most. These are mainly emails that try to pretend to be from Apple and ask the attacked user for their Apple ID credentials.

In the first half of this year, Kaspersky registered about 6 million similar attempts. And that's only for users that the company can monitor in some way. The total number will thus be significantly higher.

The company has been collecting data on these types of attacks since 2015, and since then their number has skyrocketed. Back in 2015 (and we're still only talking about mostly corporate users who use one of Kaspersky's products), there were about 850 attacks per year. In 2017, there were already 4 million, last year 7,3, and if there are no changes, this year should exceed 15 million attacks against macOS users.

The question is why this increase is occurring. Is it due to its slightly increasing popularity, or is it just that the macOS platform has become an even more tempting prey than ever before. The published data shows that phishing attacks most often target several things - Apple ID, bank accounts, accounts on social networks or other Internet portals.

In the case of Apple ID, these are classic fraudulent emails that ask users to log in for several reasons. Whether it is the need to "unlock a locked Apple account", trying to cancel a fraudulent account for some expensive purchase, or simply contacting "Apple" support, you want something important, but to read it you need to log in at this or that link.

Protecting against such attacks is relatively easy. Check the addresses from which e-mails are sent. Scrutinize anything suspicious about the form/appearance of the email. In the case of bank fraud, never open links that you run out of such dubious emails. The vast majority of services will never require you to login through their support or a link sent in an email.

Source: 9to5mac