Apple secretly updates Mac malware protection
June 20, 2010 by admin
Filed under Security News
Apple’s 10.6.4 operating system upgrade earlier this week silently updated the malware protection built into Mac OS X to protect against a backdoor Trojan horse that can allow hackers to gain remote control over your treasured iMac or MacBook.
Although there is no mention of it that we could find in Apple’s release notes for Mac OS X 10.6.4, or the accompanying security bulletin, Apple has updatedXProtect.plist – the rudimentary file that contains elementary signatures of a handful of Mac threats – to detect what they call HellRTS.
HellRTS, which Sophos products have been detecting as OSX/Pinhead-B since April, has been distributed by malicious hackers disguised as iPhoto, the photo application which ships on modern Mac computers.
If you did get infected by this malware then hackers would be able to send spam email from your Mac, take screenshots of what you are doing, access your files and clipboard and much more.
Unfortunately, many Mac users seem oblivious to security threats which can run on their computers. And that isn’t helped when Apple issues an anti-malware security update like this by stealth, rather than informing the public what it has done. You have to wonder whether their keeping quiet about an anti-malware security update like this was for marketing reasons. “Shh! Don’t tell folks that we have to protect against malware on Mac OS X!”
It seems their own employees can be amongst the worst offenders when it comes to giving users security advice. Just a few days ago I saw a former colleague of minetweet about the poor advice about malware protection being offered in Apple retail stores.
Hackers exploit Oscar film awards to spread scareware
March 9, 2010 by admin
Filed under Security News
Last night saw Kathryn Bigelow’s hard-hitting film “The Hurt Locker”, about a bomb disposal team in Iraq, scoop the major gongs at the Academy Awards. It shouldn’t probably be any surprise to hear that movie buffs around the world used the internet to keep track of who won which Oscars, and – sadly -that hackers would try and exploit the event.
Internet users searching for phrases like
Oscars 2010 winners
may be putting the security of their computers at risk today, as some of the results returned by search engines can point to malicious webpages.
By using SEO (search engine optimisation) techniques, hackers have created webpages that are stuffed with content which appears to be related to the 2010 Oscars, but are really designed to infect your computer.
As you can see, information about the Oscars ceremony and award winners has been one of the hottest search topics overnight.
Clicking on the dangerous links takes you to a page which pretends to scan your computer for security threats, trying to trick you into downloading malicious code and hand over your credit card details.
As Fraser Howard recently described on the SophosLabs blog, victims are redirected a number of times upon visiting from a search engine, before being taken to a webpage hosting a malicious script.
Sophos detects the malicious scripts as Mal/FakeAVJs-A, and the fake anti-virus itself as Troj/FakeAV-AXS.
Fake anti-virus attacks (also known as scareware) are nothing new, and it’s very common for hackers to exploit hot topics in an attempt to bring a steady stream of traffic to their infected webpages.
By Graham Cluley, Sophos
