A spike in Mac OS X threats The number of new Mac OS X threats emerging is increasing year-on-year, rising by 15 percent in 2014. This followed an increase of 44 percent in 2013 and an increase of 29 percent in 2012.
Figure 1. Number of new OS X threats documented by Symantec by yearThis is inclusive of adware, scareware, ransomware, trojans, spyware, and "unwanted and misleading apps." Oh, my.
Then there is the iOS claims. Again, the breathless hyped Register headline isn't supported by the actual Symantec paper:
Jailbreaking greatly increases risk of iOS malware The number of iOS malware threats discovered to date remains quite small, although it is beginning to increase, with seven new threats discovered to date in 2015, up from the previous high of three in 2014.
Figure 4. Number of new iOS threats documented by Symantec by yearAttackers targeting the operating system need to find a way to install malware on a device, which can represent a significant hurdle. Many threats are installed when the target connects their device to a compromised desktop computer. Jailbroken devices present more opportunities for compromise and many threats are designed to take advantage of jailbroken phones. Of the 13 iOS threats documented by Symantec to date, nine can only infect jailbroken devices.
It becomes apparent that the Register conflated 13 iOS threats in SIX YEARS into 13 iOS threats in just one year, 2015. There were two in 2009, one in 2012, three in 2014, and seven in 2015. Thirteen. Eight only applied to jailbroken iOS devices. In fact, three of the ones that worked on non-jailbroken iOS devices were only to JAILBREAK them. That left one that worked on a non-jailbroken iOS device that was a real threat. It was closed within three days of discovery.
Symantec's blog does distinguish the difference between a vulnerability and an actual exploit. They point out that the number of vulnerabilities in OS X has been around 39-70 per year which Apple fixes before they become exploits.