Apple is set to increasingly be a target by hackers and cybercriminals, according to a report by security company Symantec.

The report suggests that 2016 will be a big year for Apple malware, with malware targeting iOS devices having doubled over the past year, while threats to OS X continue to rise. Additionally, with systems like Apple Pay in place, security experts warn that it could become the target of malware.

The myth has long been that Apple devices are insusceptible to malware, however, the reality is that they are just as vulnerable, but hackers choose to find ways to infiltrate Windows and Android devices because of how much more popular they are as a whole. While the amount of risks to Apple devices is still pretty low compared with the likes of Android or Windows, they are multiplying pretty quickly.

Last year, an average of between 10,000 and 70,000 Mac devices were infected with malware each month.

"This is far fewer than Windows desktops and we don't want to scaremonger. Apple remains a relatively safe platform but Apple users can no longer be complacent about security, as the number of infections and new threats rise," said Dick O'Brien, a researcher at Symantec.

In fact, the number of computers running OS X that were infected during the first nine months of 2015 was about seven times as high compared with those infected in all of 2014.

Security company FireEye recently discovered that XcodeGhost, a malware that infiltrated iOS, had made its way into 210 U.S. businesses. Apple acted quickly to remove the malware, but damage was still done.

In short — iOS and OS X users be warned. Always install some form of anti-malware software.

Via: BBC