With Bryan out on vacation Bob “Dr. Mac” LeVitus joins Jeff Gamet to talk about why Bob doesn’t routinely run a malware checker on his Mac, plus the rant a little about cell service providers, and talk about their macOS High Sierra upgrade experiences.
Malware
2017 McAfee Threat Report Shows Spike in Mac Malware
Mac malware is up in 2017, but you won’t believe how bad it is on Windows.
Making Malwarebytes Anti-Malware Scan Automatically on Your Mac
You won’t have to worry anymore about forgetting to scan your Mac for malware periodically.
Someone Is Selling Mac Malware on the Dark Web
The spyware may not be sophisticated, but it shows that cyber criminals are looking to Macs as a source of money and mayhem.
Safari: How to Check for Malicious Extensions
Melissa Holt shows you how to check for malicious and unwanted Safari extensions on your Mac.
Siri Assistant Displays, Handbrake Malware - TMO Daily Observations 2017-05-08
A Siri appliance needs a display, or so says Apple’s Phil Schiller. Dave Hamilton and John Martellaro join Jeff Gamet to talk about voice assistants and how they feel about including a display. They also look at the recent malware attack on Handbrake.
PSA: Video Converter Handbrake Was Compromised by Malware
While reading through forum posts, Jeff Butts came across some troubling news. It turns out that the popular video conversion app HandBrake has been compromised by malware.
PSA: Russian-Backed Flash Trojan Ported to macOS
A Russian-backed bit of malware called Snake has been ported to macOS, according to security blog Fox-IT (via Malwarebytes Labs). Snake is a trojan disguised to look like a Flash installer, and it’s been around on Windows since 2008 and Linux since 2014. Bryan Chaffin explains.
DOK Malware Signed by Valid Developer Certificate (for Now)
A new piece of malware, called OSX/Dok, has been discovered by the Check Point malware research team. It affects all versions of macOS and is signed with a valid developer certificate authenticated by Apple. Dok malware is also the first to spread in a widespread email phishing campaign. Andrew Orr gives us the technical details.
New Mac Ransomware Leaves Your Files Permanently Encrypted
Mac users hoping to score Adobe Premiere Pro CC and Microsoft Office for free through BitTorrent sites are in for an ugly surprise thanks to a new ransomware making the rounds. The ransomware, called OSX/Filecoder.E, encrypts the contents of victim’s hard drives and demands payment in Bitcoin, but there isn’t any way to actually decrypt and recover files.
Just Discovered Fruitfly Malware Uses Pre-OS X Code
Malwarebytes discovered a Mac malware threat dubbed Fruitfly that’s being used to target biomedical research facilities. Calling Fruitfly new, however, may not be correct because it looks like it’s been around since at least 2014, and it also relies on some system calls that predate OS X and macOS.
PSA: New Mac Malware Tries to Trick Less Savvy Users
There’s new Mac malware in the wild aimed at users who may be a bit less savvy on the nerd scale. Discovered by Malwarebytes, this malware uses interface shenanigans to trick users into permitting other malware to be installed.
Backdoor.MAC.Elanor Malware Access Mac Webcams, Steals Data, More
There’s a new Mac malware threat in the wild dubbed Backdoor.MAC.Elanor that’s particularly nasty because it lets attackers take control of your Mac’s camera, download data from your computer, and remotely run code. Mac users can fall victim to the threat by downloading what otherwise appears to be a legit app and has even shown up on some mainstream Mac software repositories.