Trojan Articles on TUAW - The Unofficial Apple Weblog

New adware trojan targets OS X users

by Kelly Hodgkins (Mar 21st, 2013)

Adware attacks against OS X are on the rise this year, says a report by anti-virus company Doctor Web. The Russian firm recently discovered another threat, Trojan.Yontoo.1, which has quickly become the most prominent adware trojan attacking Apple desktops and laptops. The trojan worms its way ...

Daily Update for December 12, 2012

by Steven Sande (Dec 12th, 2012)

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 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 ...

Another Mac Flashback variant out, but still uses same (patched) vulnerability

by Mike Schramm (Apr 24th, 2012)

We're not quite done with Flashback yet. The good news is that the number of Macs affected by the trojan has gone down greatly, but the bad news is that there's a new variant of it out in the public. It's called Flashback.S, and just like the original, it can worm its way into a Mac's home ...

Twenty percent of Macs examined infected with Windows malware

by Kelly Hodgkins (Apr 24th, 2012)

Sophos looked at 100,000 Mac computers and found that one in every five has some form of malware. This might sound alarming, but before you stare at your machine in disgust, you should get some perspective. The survey looked at 100,000 OS X machines that are running Sophos's free Mac ...

Kaspersky Lab: Macs not invulnerable to malware

by Kelly Hodgkins (Apr 19th, 2012)

The writing is on the wall. Our time of innocence is gone. Researchers from Kaspersky Labs claim Mac market share has finally reached the critical point, and the platform is now an attractive target for online criminals. Kaspersky told Ars Technica and other press on Thursday that, "Mac users ...

Flashback infections down from over half a million to under 150,000 in eight days

by Kelly Hodgkins (Apr 18th, 2012)

According to Symantec, the OSX.Flashback.K infection is declining each day. The current number of infected Macs is now around 140,000, down from 600,000 a week ago. If you think you may be infected, you can run a Flashback removal tool from either Kapersky or F-Secure. Apple also has a tool ...

Another Java trojan for Mac discovered, this time through Microsoft Word

by Michael Grothaus (Apr 16th, 2012)

Just days after Apple released its official Flashback trojan patch, another Java trojan has been discovered that could possibly infect Macs. The trojan is known as "LuckyCat." As Kaspersky Lab Expert Costin Raiu explains in a blog post, LuckyCat takes advantage of an exploit in Microsoft Word ...

Apple responds to Flashback trojan, promises removal tool

by Michael Rose (Apr 10th, 2012)

In a tech note published today, Apple discussed the Flashback trojan (past coverage here) and reminded users of OS X 10.6 and 10.7 that they should install the April 3 Java update to remove the vulnerability that the malware uses to infect Macs. For users of OS X 10.5 Leopard or earlier, Apple ...

Talkcast tonight, 10pm ET: Fighting Flashback

by Michael Rose (Apr 8th, 2012)

As this holiday weekend draws to a close, the unfortunate fact is that we may be dealing with the largest Mac-centric botnet ever documented in the wild. While the Flashback trojan is easy to find and simple to prevent -- in fact, a stock Lion installation includes neither Java nor the Flash ...

How to find/remove the Flashback trojan

by Kelly Hodgkins (Apr 5th, 2012)

According to Russian antivirus firm Dr. Web, over 600,000 Macs worldwide are infected with the Mac flashback trojan. The trojan can be installed if you visit a malicious website, and it will attempt to connect your Mac to a botnet. Fifty-seven percent of infected machines are located in the ...

Macs are being spied on just like Windows machines

by Kelly Hodgkins (Mar 29th, 2012)

Any tech savvy Windows user is familiar with the term backdoor trojan; either they've been infected with one themselves or know someone who has. Now, it's time for Mac users, especially those who work for entities that are targets for corporate or military espionage, to become more aware of ...

DevilRobber now "improved", still nasty malware threat

by Kelly Guimont (Nov 18th, 2011)

We previously told you about DevilRobber and what sort of unsavory things it can do to (and with) your Mac. (In case you don't click over to read the article, here's the scoop: it's bad. Real bad.) Back in the day (November 1st), it was a Trojan horse and sent a little of your personal info ...

Trojan variation disables Mac malware protection

by Chris Rawson (Oct 19th, 2011)

Researchers from F-Secure warn that a variant on a trojan discovered in September, which masquerades as an Adobe Flash Player installer, now exists and is capable of disabling OS X's built-in malware protection. OSX/Flashback.C disables the auto-updater component of XProtect, which means the ...