Myth 1: “Macs Don’t Get Viruses”

This one is the classic, and it’s out of date. Jamf’s 2026 Mac Security 360 report, based on analysis of more than 150,000 devices, found that Jamf Threat Labs added over 26,000 new malware samples to its database in 2025. It also found that trojans made up roughly half of all Mac malware detections, up from around 17% the year before.

The report ties part of this to growth: Mac market share climbed 16.4% year over year in 2025, and as more businesses adopt Macs, they become a more attractive target. It also notes that more sophisticated attackers, including groups linked to nation-state activity, are building tools specifically for macOS. Macs are still a smaller target than Windows PCs, but that gap keeps narrowing, and attackers go where the devices are.

Myth 2: “The Built-In Protection Is All We Need”

macOS has real defenses, and they’re worth understanding. Apple describes three layers:

• The App Store and Gatekeeper with notarization work to keep untrusted software from launching in the first place. Apps are checked to confirm they’re properly signed and haven’t been tampered with.
• XProtect is Apple’s built-in malware detection engine. It checks for known malicious content and can remove it, and by default macOS checks for new XProtect updates daily.

For most everyday risks, that’s a strong baseline. The catch is that these tools largely work by recognizing known threats and verifying that software is properly signed. Jamf’s report points to attackers increasingly delivering malware that is itself signed and notarized, disguised as a legitimate app. It also describes infostealers that are evolving to set up backdoors and stick around after a restart.

Built-in protection is a foundation, not a complete plan. It does its job well, but its job isn’t to watch what’s happening across your whole fleet.

Myth 3: “We’re Too Small to Be a Target”

A lot of attacks aren’t aimed at anyone in particular. Phishing campaigns and malicious downloads go out to as many people as possible, and whoever clicks becomes the target. Nobody picked your company; you just happened to be in the path.

If anything, a small office can be easier pickings. A company with a handful of Macs and no one watching them often has no encryption policy, no update schedule, and no way to know if something’s wrong. Smaller organizations also tend to have the most to lose from a single incident, since there’s rarely a dedicated team ready to respond.

Myth 4: “Our Team Knows Better Than to Click Something Sketchy”

Most Mac malware doesn’t break in through a hidden flaw. It gets invited in, usually as a trojan that looks like something useful: a PDF tool, a video player, a “required” update, a browser extension. That’s consistent with what Jamf found about trojans dominating detections.

Awareness training helps, and October is a great time to do some. But even careful people get fooled by a convincing fake, especially on a busy day. Training should be one layer, not the only one. A safety net matters too: device management that controls what can be installed, and tools that spot suspicious behavior when something slips through.

Myth 5: “We Set It Up Once, So We’re Covered”

Security settings drift. Someone turns off FileVault disk encryption to troubleshoot an issue and never turns it back on. Updates get postponed for weeks because “now isn’t a good time.” A new hire’s Mac never gets configured quite the way the others were. A laptop gets repurposed without anyone checking what’s still installed on it.

Any one of these is small. Together, they leave you with a fleet where nobody can say with confidence which devices are protected and which aren’t.

This is where managing your Macs with a tool like Jamf pays off. Encryption, update schedules, and app controls get applied automatically and kept that way, instead of depending on each person to do it right. Combined with Apple’s zero-touch deployment, new devices can arrive already configured to your standards.

So What Should You Actually Do?

You don’t need to treat every Mac like a fortress. A few basics go a long way:

• Enforce encryption and updates across every device rather than leaving them up to individual users
• Manage devices centrally so settings stay consistent and new hires start out configured correctly
• Control what can be installed where it makes sense, so a convincing fake app has a harder time getting in
• Add threat detection for devices handling sensitive data, so you can see problems instead of finding out later
• Turn on multi-factor authentication for email and key business apps
• Keep training your team on phishing and fake downloads, and refresh it regularly

A Quick Self-Check

If you’re not sure where your business stands, these questions are a decent starting point:

1. Do you know which of your Macs are encrypted, and could you prove it?
2. Are your devices all on a supported version of macOS, and would you know if one fell behind?
3. If an employee’s laptop was lost tomorrow, could you lock or wipe it remotely?
4. Is anyone responsible for watching your Macs for suspicious activity, or is the answer “nobody, unless something breaks”?
5. When someone leaves, is there a clear process for retrieving and resetting their device?

If a few of those got a shrug, you’re in good company. Most small and mid-sized teams don’t have anyone whose job it is to answer them, and that’s exactly the gap managed Mac support is meant to fill.

None of this is exotic, but it does need someone to own it. If your team doesn’t have the time or Apple-specific experience, that’s what Mac support is for.

Get in touch with our team if you’d like help checking how your Macs are set up today.