Researchers at Apple security and management specialists Jamf have published a new analysis that reveals why so many users are ill-equipped to combat the latest cyber threats impacting Macs and iPhones. By examining real-world user data, the Jamf researchers have analyzed the evolving Apple threat landscape and have issued a critical security warning involving three actions that are leaving users open to attack. Correcting them could make a critical difference to your security and privacy.
Cyber Hygiene Is Abysmal And Leaves Threat Actors Ready To Strike
By analyzing data from a total of 15 million desktop computers, tablets and smartphones in 90 countries, the Jamf researchers made some startling discoveries regarding Apple devices specifically. The research, which covered 12 months ending in the last quarter of 2023, determined that of a total of 300 malware families that exist on the macOS platform, 21 were new in 2023. Interestingly, given recent reporting regarding Trojans on Apple devices, this type of malware threat only accounted for 17% of all instances. The research also resulted in Jamf stating that “organizations’ cyber hygiene is abysmal and threat actors are ready to strike with the most sophisticated attacks yet.”
Critical Mac And iPhone Security Warning Issued
“The data in our report shows that Mac and mobile fleets have fared reasonably well over the past 12-months,” Michael Covington, vice president of portfolio strategy at Jamf, says, “but that result is largely due to sheer luck; with a growing list of malicious tactics emerging and with organizations demonstrating poor security hygiene overall, the year ahead is likely to be bad for business if trends do not change.” This is where the critical warning for Mac and iPhone users comes in, with Apple-specific security features being the center of attention.
The Jamf research found that users were turning off basic features that provide critical device security.
Don’t Disable FileVault
The first is FileVault, a feature that encrypts data within a volume but was “disabled on 36% of devices in the research pool despite the ease of deployment, configuration and managing encryption keys.”
Don’t Disable Your Firewall
The second is that, despite the number of mobile devices targeted by hackers using web-based threats, the system firewall feature was found to be disabled on 55% of Macs. “Enabling Firewalls serves as an industry best practice that is known to prevent devices from accepting incoming connections from unauthorized applications and services,” the report reminds us.
Enable Lock Screen Protection
Finally, the third is lock screen protection usage. Something that the Jamf researchers describe as being a “fundamental feature of mobile devices that secures data from unauthorized access but also serves as the decryption key for all data stored locally on the volume.” Yet, across 2023, there were still 3% of iPhones and iPads with the Lock Screen disabled and “25% of organizations had at least one user with lock screen disabled.”
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