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McAfee: Big Spike In Mac OS Malware In 2016, Mostly From Adware Bundling (fortune.com)
An anonymous reader quotes Fortune:
Security firm McAfee released a report this week that showed a big jump in 2016 regarding malware hitting the Mac operating system. The McAfee report said there were 460,000 malware instances affecting the Mac OS in the fourth quarter of 2016, an over 700% jump from the previous year during the same quarter.
McAfee's new report confirms similar research by other cybersecurity firms in recent years that show an increased prevalence of malware affecting Apple computers. Essentially, as more people buy Apple computers, there are more possibilities for malware to infect the machines. But while an over 700% surge in malware may sound frightening, it should be noted that "the big increase in Mac OS malware was due to adware bundling," the report's authors wrote.
McAfee's new report confirms similar research by other cybersecurity firms in recent years that show an increased prevalence of malware affecting Apple computers. Essentially, as more people buy Apple computers, there are more possibilities for malware to infect the machines. But while an over 700% surge in malware may sound frightening, it should be noted that "the big increase in Mac OS malware was due to adware bundling," the report's authors wrote.
I hate adware bunding.
Bounding? Binding? Bonding? Banding? Bunging? Funding? (let me know if i'm missing anything) For fuck's sake, it's not a high crime to edit typos in article summaries or the fucking title.
There is no XUL, only WebExtensions...
I thought MacOS was secure because it is unix, and unix eats viruses somehow. And Apple loves you.
Laws are rules for the court, but merely a bottom bar to hit for life. Think beyond laws in your actions always.
By that definition then Android and Windows are both malware themselves. It seems every year they add more and more "apps" that contain "useful information they deem important" and "suggestions" that boil down to adware.
I know I'm not the only one that gets pissed off by sites that decide to autoplay a video when you visit a page. Do not link to fortune.com or any other site with autoplaying videos!
Anons need not reply. Questions end with a question mark.
The summary raises an interesting issue, that "the big increase in Mac OS malware was due to adware bundling." What adware is being bundled with what software or hardware? Obviously, Apple isn't going to be bundling adware with their MacOS devices, so who is doing this? What has been the effect of this malware? What's the most common malware, and what does it do? How is this affecting Mac users?
So I went to TFA for answers and found their section on Mac OS. Out of the 49 pages of the report, this is the entire text of the MacOS section: "Just as last quarter, the big increase in Mac OS malware was due to adware bundling. " There are also a couple of bar graphs.
I skimmed some of the rest of the report. There's 15 pages with some details about the Mirai botnet and how it works. In fact, it's the longest article in the thing. If I were going to try to get someone to read this report, and I wanted to give, say, a headline and summary talking about its contents, I might choose to talk about the Mirai article, rather than a throw-away gloss on page 39 with two bar graphs that exist without context in something that looks like an appendix.
LOL.
I didn't know that was even still around.
Should McAfee (the company) change its name? I know that I, for one, have to fight the urge to summarily dismiss an article when I see it starting with a quote from McAfee. For me, that name has a connotation that is not a good one...
Why do psychic's need maps...?
To show that they can solve graph isomorphisms in sub-poly time using their psychic powers.
I should use this sig to advertise my book ISBN-13 : 978-1501515132.
Ever notice how smug Apple users are when it comes to malware and viruses? They insist Apple products are not susceptible to malware and viruses.
Ever notice how that claim is always made by smug people who secretly wish they only had ten times as much malware as Apple users.
And get our McAfee bundled malware/adware preinstalled on your PC before you even connect it to the Internet!
Come on guys, it's a huge timesaver! We're so advanced that we'll start hitting you up with ads for the full paid version of our software before you've even finished updating your drivers.
Hahaha, disregard that, I suck cocks
APK
Literally, just yesterday I removed a TROJAN.DNSChanger and a metric ton of PUPS/PUMS from a clients computer all the while McAfee was saying all was fine.
I booted into safemode, checked startup programs, and I could see a fake antivirus with little to no effort!.
Malwarebytes found and removed all of this, after which McAfee all of a sudden starts working and begins to run an update which appeared to not have run for a few months.
I get this all_the_time with Trend, McAfee and Nortons that it beggars belief.
that those adwares are probably bundled in McAfee products.
The trouble with mac malware is that a lot of mac users incorrectly believe they are immune to all viruses/malware. This leads to them engaging in more risky behavior than the average windows user.
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APK
P.S. - Safe https://www.virustotal.com/en/file/e01211ca36aa02e923f20adee0a3c4f5d5187dc65bdf1c997b3da3c2b0745425/analysis/1433430542/
I think a large part of this has been because of MacUpdate wrapping app installers in their adware: https://blog.malwarebytes.com/cybercrime/2015/11/has-macupdate-fallen-to-the-adware-plague/