AN ONLINE privacy company has found that Apple devices have been exploited through almost 400 gaps in security programming.
Unfortunately for the company, the most vulnerable application was Apple’s own Safari browser.
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An analysis by security professionals at Atlas VPN found that the last six months of 2021 were a particularly troubling time for the tech giant.
Hackers’ successful exploits of Apple devices went up by a shocking 467% during the back half of last year.
Users who were exposed were at risk of malware installation or having their passwords hijacked.
Atlas VPN says Apple devices running iOS 14.8 – a now-outdated program – were most at risk.
Part of the appeal of Apple products for buyers is their interconnectedness – users can sync their iPhones and iPads to their MacBook laptops for full integration.
Unfortunately, hackers are drawn to Apple for the same reason – a successful hack can lead to compromising several devices in the same network, with billions of potential candidates.
The National Institute of Standards and Technology gave one of the bugs in Apple’s ecosystem one of the highest danger ranks attainable with a base score of 8.8 out of 10, in part because of its applicability to iPhones, iPads and Apple computers.
TechRadar quoted an associate at Atlas VPN saying “products owned by tech giants such as Apple or Google are used by billions of people worldwide. That makes billions of users vulnerable to exploits found by cybercriminals.”
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Other large tech companies were exposed on a comparable level in 2021.
Experts ranked Microsoft as the second-most vulnerable company with hackers also targeting their browser, called Microsoft Edge.
Google was the most exposed company of 2021, with 511 vulnerabilities found spread across the company’s family of devices and apps.
One of the keys to avoiding a hack is to simply keep your device updated with the latest software – even minor software updates often include security patches.
Apple devices do not automatically update for up to four weeks after new software has been written and published.
Users should keep an eye out for a notification coming from the Settings app and proactively install new software when made available.
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