Mac Attack
Widespread Virus Proves Macs Are No Longer Safe From Hackers
By NICOLE PERLROTH
New York Times
For years, Mac users have been told that not only are they cooler than their PC counterparts, they are safer too. Apple has always held that computer viruses and malware only dogged its competitors.
That is no longer the case.
This week, security researchers discovered a new computer virus had infected half a million Mac users — about half of them in the United States. The virus is infesting users in the most surreptitious way possible: users need not manually click on any malicious links or manually download any malware to get infected. The program simply downloads itself. Once downloaded, the malware’s creators gain a back door that gives them unauthorized access to the victim’s computer.
“This is the largest scale attack on Mac OS X to date,” said Roel Schouwenberg, a senior researcher at Kaspersky Lab, an antivirus software company who has analyzed the malware. “And much more sophisticated.”
For now, the malware’s creators appear to be using infested computers for click fraud, in which they manipulate clicks on a Web advertisement in exchange for kickbacks. But as with all malware, its creators can choose to use infected computers however they like.
(Continued here.)
By NICOLE PERLROTH
New York Times
For years, Mac users have been told that not only are they cooler than their PC counterparts, they are safer too. Apple has always held that computer viruses and malware only dogged its competitors.
That is no longer the case.
This week, security researchers discovered a new computer virus had infected half a million Mac users — about half of them in the United States. The virus is infesting users in the most surreptitious way possible: users need not manually click on any malicious links or manually download any malware to get infected. The program simply downloads itself. Once downloaded, the malware’s creators gain a back door that gives them unauthorized access to the victim’s computer.
“This is the largest scale attack on Mac OS X to date,” said Roel Schouwenberg, a senior researcher at Kaspersky Lab, an antivirus software company who has analyzed the malware. “And much more sophisticated.”
For now, the malware’s creators appear to be using infested computers for click fraud, in which they manipulate clicks on a Web advertisement in exchange for kickbacks. But as with all malware, its creators can choose to use infected computers however they like.
(Continued here.)
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