How To Tell If Your Mac Is Hacked

~~Think different.~~

Don't think.

What are the chances your Mac has been hacked or has malware like spyware, keyloggers, remote access software?

A lot higher than those old Mac vs. PC commercials would like you to believe...

9,810 The total number of Common Vulnerabilities and Exposures IDs affecting Apple hardware and software as of October 11, 2022. U.S. Department Of Commerce - National Vulnerability Database

The US Dept. of Commerce's National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) is a Congressional created laboratory responsible for setting critical measurement standards the US relies on.

NIST publishes the standards and metrics that make up the National Vulnerability Database which is essentially just a list that allows anyone to view and understand vulnerabilities because each unique vulnerability on the list is assigned a unique "CVE ID". The data contained within each CVE ID is maintained by the Dept. of Homeland Security's Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency in partnership with a non-profit organization known as MITRE Corporation.

Ok. What does that all mean?

CVE IDs are the standard across all manufacturers for publicly disclosed vulnerabilities due to the participation of multiple interested parties who review participate in the publication of each vulnerability.

Basically, information about a vulnerability/exploit/"hack" that has been issued a CVE ID is among the most reliable and trustworthy available because its validated by numerous independent parties who make sure that it's legit, accurate, and unique.

Each vulnerability that gets a CVE-ID published is also assigned a score between 1-10 based on its severity.

There have been 9,810 unique CVE IDs affecting Apple hardware and software to date. They vary in severity from the insignificant to those that make major headlines for years and pose a real threat to the security of any affected user.

Number of Unique CVE-IDs Affecting Apple Hardware and Software

This graph above shows the breakdown of CVE IDs by year for the 9,810 CVE IDs. So far 2022 has had more than 600 new CVE IDs created. Each one identifies a unique vulnerability that was not previously disclosed to the public by whoever discovered it.

% of All Published CVE IDs That Affect Apple Hardware and Software

The CVE IDs that are specific to Apple represent between 3-18% of the total CVE IDs created each year since 2010 which is what the graph above shows.

Note: Any vendor of hardware and software can be affected by a vunerability issued a CVE ID.

Apple's Share in 2022: 3.20% of the 20,250 total unique vulnerabilities added between Jan. 1 and Oct. 22 of this year to the National Vulnerability Database were specific to Apple. So 3.20% were for Apple and 96.80% were for everyone else.

Compare: Microsoft's share of the same 20,250 new CVE IDs is 7.61%.