Malware Articles on TUAW - The Unofficial Apple Weblog

Security Researcher Brian Krebs outs the man behind the Flashback malware

by Yoni Heisler (Apr 3rd, 2013)

In April 2012, security researchers discovered a new piece of malware targeting OS X users. The malware was dubbed "Flashback" and reportedly infected more than 600,000 Mac users, including about 200 machines on Apple's Cupertino campus. The malware was able to infect so many machines because ...

Daily Update for February 19, 2013

by Steven Sande (Feb 19th, 2013)

It's the TUAW Daily Update, your source for Apple news in a convenient audio format. You'll get all the top Apple stories of the day in three to five minutes for a quick review of what's happening in the Apple world. You can listen to today's Apple stories by clicking the inline player ...

Apple targeted by hackers

by Steven Sande (Feb 19th, 2013)

Reuters is reporting that Apple has been targeted in a cyber-attack. Apple announced the breach this morning, noting that malware had targeted a "limited number" of Mac systems. Reuters notes that the same hacker group is suspected of an attack on Facebook machines last week. In a statement the ...

About that Google malware warning...

by Steven Sande (Jan 16th, 2013)

During the last 24 hours or so, many TUAW readers catching up on the latest Apple news have seen something similar to the warning above when they go to "Page 2" of the site, which is accessed by clicking the Older Articles link at the bottom of the TUAW home page. We are definitely aware of the ...

Oracle releases v11 fix for zero-day Java security flaw

by Michael Grothaus (Jan 14th, 2013)

Oracle has released an official fix for the Java security flaw that was reported by CERT (the Computer Emergency Readiness Team) on January 11. Shortly after the flagging by CERT, Apple took steps to disable the Java plug-in on all Macs running OS X 10.6 or later by amending the XProtect ...

Fake installer malware makes its way to Mac

by Randy Nelson (Dec 12th, 2012)

If you download a Mac app and its installer asks you for your phone number, you're likely looking at the latest malware to find its way onto OS X. According to Russian security firm Dr. Web, a Trojan malware has been identified called Trojan.SMSSend.3666 that requests your mobile phone number ...

Daily Update for December 12, 2012

by Steven Sande (Dec 12th, 2012)

Securing Your Mac: A Guide for Reasonable People, Version 1.0

by TJ Luoma (Nov 30th, 2012)

"How do I protect my Mac online? Should I run any 'security' applications on my Mac?" That question arrived several weeks ago via the contact form here at TUAW, and I have been trying to come up with a reasonable answer to it ever since. That question, or a variation of it, comes fairly ...

Mountain Lion 101: Gatekeeper controls app launches for security's sake

by Mike Schramm (Jul 26th, 2012)

Gatekeeper isn't the most obvious feature of the new OS X Mountain Lion system that you probably downloaded and installed yesterday, but it might be one of the most important. Gatekeeper essentially oversees a list of verified developers who have applied for and received a Developer ID from ...

Windows malware found in iOS App Store app

by Kelly Hodgkins (Jul 26th, 2012)

An Apple forum user with the username deesto said in a post that he downloaded the free "Instaquotes Quotes Cards for Instagram" app and his ClamXav tool flagged the file as malware. Further inspection by CNET revealed that the alert was not a false positive and the file did contain a piece of ...

Malware affecting Macs running older versions of OS X

by Steven Sande (Jul 11th, 2012)

There's new Java-based Mac malware in the wild, but before you run screaming out the door to buy an antivirus app, read the rest of this post. The new malware, known as GetShell.A, requires you to approve the installation of a Java applet. OS X, being the polite operating system that it is, ...

DNSchanger standby servers will go dark Monday 7/9

by Michael Rose (Jul 8th, 2012)

It's pretty unlikely that your computer is among the 277,000 worldwide still affected by the DNSchanger malware (63,000 of them in the US, per the FBI and CIO Daily), but just in case you find yourself mysteriously knocked offline Monday morning, here's why. From 2007 until the law knocked on ...

Apple responds to spam app Find and Call

by Kelly Hodgkins (Jul 6th, 2012)

On Thursday, Kaspersky Lab Expert researcher Denis Maslennikov wrote about a rogue app in the iOS App Store and Google Play store that secretly uploads your contact list to a remote server and then uses that information to send out spam text messages. Called "Find and Call", the app is ...

Trojan targets Mac-using activists in China

by Mike Schramm (Jul 3rd, 2012)

There's a new backdoor trojan exploit out there for Mac users that appears to originate in China, specifically targeted at political activists in the Uighur movement against that country. The trojan appears in email inboxes as a picture attachment which, when opened, secretly installs ...

Apple removes claim of virus immunity

by Kelly Hodgkins (Jun 26th, 2012)

As small as the threat may be, Mac users can no longer claim immunity from attack by malicious software online. Many Mac users are starting to recognize this new reality and now Apple does, too. As noted in a recent PC World article, Apple has quietly removed the claim "It doesn't get PC viruses" ...