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Beware Mac malware!
Phil Hawkins, Photographer
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Jack Howard, Photographer, Photo Editor
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Central Jersey | NJ | USA | Posted: 1:03 PM on 06.01.11 |
| ->> And also beware shrunken URLs that could possibly lead you to a malicious site! |
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Jim Colburn, Photographer, Photo Editor
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Omaha | NE | USA | Posted: 4:56 PM on 06.01.11 |
->> You have to be dumb enough to enter your administrator password for this malware to be installed....
One of the joys of a Unix-based operating system. |
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Stephen Brashear, Photographer, Assistant
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Seattle | WA | USA | Posted: 5:13 PM on 06.01.11 |
| ->> Jim- Actually, I think this malware is able to bypass the administrator password requirement. |
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Butch Miller, Photographer
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Lock Haven | PA | USA | Posted: 5:30 PM on 06.01.11 |
->> Stephen ... there is a version of the malware that indeed, you do not need to enter your administrator password ... but you DO need to click "install" to activate the malware ... Mac Defender and it's variants are absolutely zero threat, as in no threat whatsoever without USER intervention ...
Plus this article on the Security Update:
http://tinyurl.com/3e59rso
From the article: "There’s more in that update than just a MacDefender nuke, though. For the first time ever, it introduces self-updating antimalware software to the Mac.
The download, which clocks in at just 2.1MB, provides a File Quarantine definition for the OSX.MacDefender.A malware and all its known variants to the xprotect.plist.
What’s xprotect.plist? It’s a file on your Mac that allows OS X to identify files that might contain Mac malware, and warn the user when he or she tries to open that file that they’d be better off dumping it in the trash."
Even though a new variant has been introduced since this most recent Security Update released by Apple, until a more permanent solution can be offered, at least Apple is recognizing and implementing a smooth flow option to keep up with the threat ... how well and how quickly Apple responds with auto updates is yet unknown ... but the sky us not falling either ... |
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Phil Hawkins, Photographer
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Fresno | ca | usa | Posted: 6:07 PM on 06.01.11 |
| ->> I think the main point here, if one is forced to verbalize it, is that the idyllic days of Mac invulnerability to viruses and malware is way, way, long past. Now Mac users will have to be as vigilant as the rest of us mortals. Posting a notice of a specific attack and how to identify it would seem to me a positive contribution to the community and a good thing. I would certainly want to know; like the recent Gmail attacks from China, etc. Most malware and phishing schemes are readily identifiable to long time Windows users, but some Mac folks might still be operating under the old (false) feeling of security in this regard. Ignore it or give it short shrift if you want to; you are just the lamb these wolves are looking for. |
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Butch Miller, Photographer
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Lock Haven | PA | USA | Posted: 7:38 PM on 06.01.11 |
->> ... well ... in this instance, the lambs are quite as vulnerable as many would like them to be ... the ovine in question must first extend an invitation to the lupine attacker for dinner and actually serve up the hors d'oeuvres to kindle his guest's appetite before the host can become the main course ... I think Little Red Riding Hood would have been a more apropos example ...
Phil ... While I do applaud your effort to assist Mac Users in their efforts to remain healthy in their computer usage ... I also think I can detect a somewhat gleeful attitude in sharing the news ... of the hundreds of stories on the internet about the issue ... you chose to link the most outspoken Apple/Jobs hater of the bunch ... a fellow who has been proven only to share information and facts that please him and shed as much negative light as possible on those he dislikes the most in his given opine du jour ... and whose blog is titled "Microsoft report" ... hardly the last word on Apple issues ... sort of like trusting you local Chevy dealer to be totally honest and an expert authority on what issues Ford may be experiencing ... I would expect the former to evaluate the latter more negatively than an independent source ...
Relishing the pleasure of such an occurrence is no less annoying than those who falsely preach the absence of vulnerability ... I don't have much time for them either ... but I will repeat that there is no reason to live in fear using Mac OS X ... don't invite that which you don't know into the fold ... and there is little to fear ...
The vast majority of Apple users, while loyal to their platform, are also not the the ignorant mind-numbed robots some would have us believe (in fact, at least three of the four respondents to this thread have positively proven they were aware of the issue and potential problems) ... Most of us have been fully aware that Mac OS is not totally invulnerable ... this is not the first Trojan to offer the potential of problems for Mac OS X ... nor have we forgotten the pre-OS X days when there were several instances of malware, viruses and worms that affected both Apple and Windows systems with equal vigor ... also there is a large growing number of Apple users who migrated from Windows ... I hardly think that they parked their common sense at the door upon exiting the Apple Store ... |
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Chuck Liddy, Photographer
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Durham | NC | USA | Posted: 8:08 PM on 06.01.11 |
| ->> phil, do not be a hater! didn't your mama ever tell you apples are good for you? 8) |
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Phil Hawkins, Photographer
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Fresno | ca | usa | Posted: 1:36 AM on 06.02.11 |
->> Hater? Pshaw! Seriously, not me! I am on the verge of making the Mac conversion myself, so I have drank the Kool-Aid. But for as long as I can remember, one of the biggest selling point of Mac usage was it's lack of attention by virus and malware builders. How many folks out there have, for years, blindly gone along, continuing in the belief that they are safe? Certainly a good many are aware of the change, but I think many are not. Better to be safe than sorry especially when it's so easy to post here for all to see.
Butch, I gotta admit I pay no attention to this guy's partiality or whatever... I just read the stories to keep up myself. I haven't noticed a bias at all, but then I'm not paying attention to that stuff. |
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Jim Colburn, Photographer, Photo Editor
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Omaha | NE | USA | Posted: 12:18 PM on 06.03.11 |
->> "Now Mac users will have to be as vigilant as the rest of us mortals"
"one of the biggest selling point of Mac usage was it's lack of attention by virus and malware builders"
Phil, Phil, Phil...
Because OSX is based on Unix it has a much higher level of security in that, as with McDefender, a program can't install itself without the okay of the machine's administrator. With Windows that can happen, and it does, which it why the Windows anti-virus business is so big and why they are trying to scare the crap out of Mac users. They want a piece of the Mac pie now that it's getting bigger.
Face it. If you're some hacker in Romania and you have the choice to work on a virus that will screw up the 85 percent of the world's computers running Widows or the 15 percent that are running OSX, which would you choose to work on to get the most bang for your buck?
Make your switch to a Mac and practice safe computing. If something says "enter your administrator password" and you haven't started a software install from a known and trusted source, just say no (Nancy Reagan would be proud).
Oh yeh. Whenever Apple comes out with a new operating system upgrade (Lion's on the way) wait six months before upgrading so as to let other people de-bug the first releases. I always wait until at least 10.X.1 before upgrading and often much later than that unless there's something in the new operating system I really need. |
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Michael Fischer, Photographer
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Spencer | Ia | USA | Posted: 3:19 PM on 06.03.11 |
->> Well put, Jim.
I was attacked by MacDefender. Took one look and knew what it was. Didn't click - end of issue. And that was 24 hours before MacDefender become commonplace.
Jim is correct; the Mac platform is certainly bigger than before, but my guess is the folks in China, Nigeria and Romania will attack cellphone operating systems long before they'll worry about a Mac. |
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