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Proof-of-Concept Ransomware Affects Macs (vice.com)

Posted by Soulskill on from the equal-opportunity-blackhats dept.

sarahnaomi writes: Ransomware, the devilish family of malware that locks down a victim's files until he or she coughs up a hefty bounty, may soon be coming to Mac. Last week, a Brazilian security researcher produced a proof-of-concept for what appears to be the first ransomware to target Mac operating systems (Mac OS X). On Monday, cybersecurity company Symantec verified the researcher's findings. "Mabouia is the first case of file-based crypto ransomware for OS X, albeit a proof-of-concept," Symantec wrote in a blog post. "It's simple code, I did it in two days," [said] the creator of the malware.

3 of 163 comments (clear)

  1. Re:Just to note... by macs4all · · Score: 0, Flamebait

    You have to actually download it, choose to run it, close the warning box that is popping up to warn you exactly of this sort of software.

    So, IOW, nothing to see here, move along.

    Nice Try, Dice/Slashdot. I'm sure you'll get a lot of clicks from mouth-foaming Apple-Haters, though; so good job!

  2. Seems like a much better business model by wardrich86 · · Score: 0, Flamebait

    We already know that the typical Mac users is naive "there are no viruses for Mac!" and we also know there's a whole niche market of Apple users with more money than brains. I expect these people to haul in more money than the Windows ransomeware guys.

  3. Re:Just to note... by macs4all · · Score: 0, Flamebait

    You have to actually download it, choose to run it, close the warning box that is popping up to warn you exactly of this sort of software.

    So, IOW, nothing to see here, move along. Nice Try, Dice/Slashdot. I'm sure you'll get a lot of clicks from mouth-foaming Apple-Haters, though; so good job!

    See? Watch as the Apple-Haters Downmod my Post into oblivion, even though I speak the absolute truth: There IS nothing to see here. This is NOT a reasonable "Proof of Concept"; it is merely CLICKBAIT.

    Sorry to burst your hate-bubble; but OS X has not had a non-Social-Engineered piece of Malware, EVER. And this is since OS X 10.0.0 debuted in 2000.

    Prove me wrong. I double-dog dare you. The last person who tried proudly trotted out a list of MacOS (Classic) Viruses (all SEVEN of them!), all from BEFORE OS X even existed...