
As the year draws to a close, AV-TEST, one of the major anti-malware solution evaluation firms alongside AV-Comparatives, has shared some interesting statistics regarding the growth of malware in 2022. The data showed that there were about 70 million new malware. Samples on Windows, dwarfed by those on macOS, saw only around 12,000 samples. Therefore, the number of malicious files on Windows is 5,000 times higher than on Mac. The comparison with Linux is much more favorable for Windows as close to 2 million samples were obtained on Linux. However, the number of Windows is still 60 times higher.
new #Malware In 2022: In total we caught 69,504,686 new ones. #Samples of the # Windows12,445 new samples for #macOS1,917,133 new samples for #Linux and 1,073,866 for the new sample #Android. A total of 98,084,563 samples were added to our malware database this year. https://t.co/Dy0fTOnKga pic.twitter.com/Can5P3N1w8
— AV-ATLAS (@avatlasorg) December 22, 2022
Interestingly, while the total number of malware for Windows is certainly high, the rate of growth has been steadily declining since September. The bottom right image shows monthly growth while the left image shows total malware and PUA (Potentially Unwanted Applications).
Next, we have macOS and although the total number of malware is relatively low, the growth rate has increased significantly in November and December.
Linux is perhaps the most impressive because it seems to have completely eliminated new malware. The growth rate has been very low since June and remained so until December.
you can come AV-TEST’s portal Get more insights through interactive charts.