India has the second highest number of macOS users in the world that have been affected by phishing attacks, reveals a recent report by Kaspersky. According to the firm, 22.1 percent of all users of Apple’s macOS-powered devices (MacBooks, iMacs, Mac Pro/Mini) in India faced some form of phishing attack or the other, making it the second most targeted nation for phishing criminals targeting macOS in the world, behind Brazil.
In a statement, Tatyana Sidorina, security researcher at Kaspersky, stated, “The ecosystem around Macs and other Apple devices is generally considered a far safer environment. Therefore, users might be less cautious when they encounter fake websites.”
The fake websites and emails are a part of a long-used tactic to steal iCloud login credentials, which according to the report still remains the most popular phishing attack on macOS and iOS devices. Other popular phishing attacks included threat emails that demanded users to ‘verify’ a particular link in order to not be banned from iCloud. Apple, to clarify, makes no such demands of its users.
As Sidorina mentions, iCloud attacks can be potentially dangerous, since it may give attackers the ability to remotely wipe out entire iPads or iPhones, or remote install a ransomware in order to make financial demands. Kaspersky also notes that within the first six months of 2019, Apple’s macOS and iOS devices faced nearly 9 percent more phishing attacks than they did in the entirety of 2018.
As stated by the report, nearly 1.6 million Apple devices faced phishing attacks within the first six months of 2019, while 1.49 million phishing attacks on Mac and iOS devices were seen by Kaspersky in 2018. The figures offer further proof of how zero-day vulnerabilities have increased on Apple’s platform, and cyber attacks in general have grown in sophistication.
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