Mac computers have always been rewarded as the ones having the most secure operating systems. Although the times are rapidly changing and new malware trends have surfaced, some computer owners still assume that macOs are somehow immune to all types of malware infections. Long story short, this assumption should be thrown away immediately.
Miner infects macOS through MacUpdate website
Hackers are no longer paying exclusive attention to Windows operating systems: macOS have been threatened by a fair share of viruses. In fact, the Mac-targeting infections have been around for years, just not as at your face as a lot of malware for Windows. For instance, FruitFly threat was active for over 10 years. This is one of the incidents that really shook up the game and forced security researchers to look closer at the security of Mac devices.
One of the most recent news about Mac-targeting infections involved a crypto-miner. Researchers explained that MacUpdate, a popular software download site, has been spreading a crypto-miner to unsuspecting users. The threat was specifically designed to infect macOSs. According to the complimented analysis so far, the miner generates Monero cryptocurrency. After the worth of Bitcoins has significantly drifted away from the success of 2017, other digital currencies are gradually getting some more time in the spotlight.
Other Mac-targeting malware and their features
When it comes to malware, focused on Mac devices, it tends to be less noticeable. In this case of the miner, distributed through MacUpdate, researchers have revealed that most users will have no idea about its existence. The miner is downloaded into Library folder. Since it is hidden from macOS users, they won’t be able to determine that a malware has compromised their device. Luckily, owners of MacUpdate acted quickly: the problem was fixed on the 1st of February.
When it comes to generally disturbing aspects about macOS, it has been confirmed that for some reason, attacks against Macs are the most frequent in United States. Over 20% of all detected malware rose against people from the US.
While vulnerabilities in Windows receive a lot of coverage and are considered pretty common at this point, you would be surprised to hear that vulnerabilities in macOS are also fairly frequent. According to statistical material, there has been a significant increase of vulnerabilities, detected in 2017 than in 2016 (approximately 29%).
In our website, we have also paid a reasonable amount of attention to malware, targeting macOS. For instance, just in December of 2017, we discussed the strong OSX.Pirrit malware. In addition to this, there are appears to be more rogue system optimizers that are specifically designed to power up macOS. We have analyzed tools like MacShiny and Advanced Mac Cleaner.
Also, some strategies, mostly relevant to Windows operating systems, have also been adapted to infect Macs. For instance, malicious macros in Word documents have been indicated as a threat to Mac as well as Windows. If you take a good look, the list goes on. From ransomware, targeting Mac, to other devious infections that we have reviewed over the years, it should be said that Macs can be infected just like any other operating system.
While you might enjoy using macOS, do not trust in its natural immunity against malware. Use anti-malware tools to make sure that malware would not threaten your device.
Source: macworld.com.
