The New Macintosh Spyware that Mac Users Need To Watch Out For

When it comes to spyware, Mac users have had it easy, say experts. If you bring up Macintosh spyware on Mac user support forums, most will tell you that you don’t need Macintosh spyware protection. Mac runs on a secure operating system, so there’s no need to worry about spyware on Macintosh machines. For years now, the bottom line among the Mac security community about mac spyware protection has been to use safe browsing practices and if you’re concerned about the possibility of spyware on your Macintosh, use MacScan, the only mac spyware tool generally available.

Fraudulent Macintosh Spyware Removers

In January, F-secure announced that it had found a fraudulent mac spyware remover ‘in the wild’. MacSweep, which shares a name with a legitimate but outdated Macintosh utility, offers to sweep your Mac and find any spyware on it. The catch, of course, is that you have to buy the full version to ‘clean’ the infected files that it “found”.  While this isn’t Macintosh spy ware, it is an indication that hackers and social engineers are working on ways to get to Mac users.

The Macintosh Spy Ware Poker Trick

Built-in Macintosh spyware protection counts on users being savvy enough to not be taken in by social engineering ploys. The latest run of spyware for Macintosh platforms is packaged in a tempting application wrapper – online poker for Mac users. If you click on the application to run it, it pops up an alert window telling you that one of your codecs is out of date and prompting for the admin password to update and install the new codec. You may not fall for it – but other users of your computer may. If they do, you won’t even know that everything you type – including passwords and user names for all of your accounts – are being sent to hackers unless you run good mac spyware protection like Internet Cleanup or SecureMac’s MacScan.

DNS Changer Trojan Spyware for Mac

In October, 2007, several internet security sites reported a Trojan dropper that targets Macs. The OSX.RSPlug.A Trojan Horse used social engineering to trick users into installing a DNS changer. One Internet security expert wrote, “the bad guys are taking Mac now seriously – this is a professional attempt at attacking Mac systems”. After explaining how the mac spyware tricks users into installing a Trojan on their machines, he went on to say “This malware shows that we must not ignore Mac machines and that Mac users should not think they are invulnerable just by using a Mac and that they can click on absolutely everything.”

The Newest Spyware for Mac – Pod-slurping

The latest spyware threat for Mac users is pod-slurping – actually connecting an iPod, thumb drive or other mobile device to a computer and copying data from the hard drive. While not technically spyware, Mac users do need to defend against this outright data theft. On a Mac Firewire connection, a pod-slurper can download your entire hard drive in a matter of minutes. One mac spyware tool addresses this vulnerability – Internet Cleanup 5 uses Device Sentry software to prevent thieves from mounting iPods, thumb drives and other devices without authorization.

The bottom line is that the big guns are starting to turn toward Mac. Spyware for Macintosh is a reality, and as the percentage of Mac users online continues to grow, macintosh spyware protection will become a necessity rather than a rarity

Return from Macintosh Spyware to Mac Spyware home