malware
-
Apple malware: 6 years of crying wolf
A collection of dire warnings from the past puts this week's alarms into perspective
Three days after ZDNet ran a piece entitled "Coming Soon to a Mac Near You: Serious Malware": Daring Fireball's John Gruber has posted, under the headline "Wolf!" more than a dozen variations on the same theme.
They date back to 2004 and all sound a familiar warning: Apple (AAPL), having achieved critical mass in the market place, is MORE
Philip Elmer-DeWitt - May 5, 2011 7:41 PM ETPosted in: Apple, Daring Fireball, iPods, John Gruber, Macintosh, malware, Microsoft, Microsoft Windows, Mobile, PCs, Tablets, Trojan, Virus, Windows, Worm -
Is Mac under a virus attack?
No. But there's some bad news rising on the Apple malware front
Let's see if we can handle this one as a Q&A.
Q: Is there a Mac OS X virus loose on the Internet? Technically, no. As far as I know, no Mac OS X virus has ever been detected in the wild. But there are other kinds of Mac malware out there that you should know about.
Q: Like what? The MORE
Philip Elmer-DeWitt - May 4, 2011 10:44 AM ETPosted in: Anti-Virus, Apple, Intego, MAC Defender, Mac OS X, malware, Microsoft, Microsoft Windows, PCs, Safari, Virus, Weyland-Yutani BOT -
Google to throw the kill switch on malicious apps
Google has acknowledged the issue of malware hidden in app files by a developer and is taking the extraordinary step of reaching out to infected handsets and deleting the files.
Earlier this week, Android Police (a site, not a paramilitary group) posted a story exposing 21 applications from one developer in the Android Market which contained a known Android exploit to gain access to an Android device. Originally discovered by Reddit user lompolo, the apps MORE
Seth Weintraub - Mar 6, 2011 6:15 AM ET -
That old Mac malware canard
Why would Symantec's CEO suggest that Macs are just as vulnerable as Windows PCs?
Maybe to sell more anti-viral software.
That's the only explanation I can give for Enrique Salem's performance in a video posted on CNNMoney Thursday entitled "Macs are no safer than PCs." (Video below the fold.)
Fortune's Adam Lashinsky asked Symantec's (SYMC) CEO several different ways whether a Mac was as likely to get attacked by malware as a MORE
Philip Elmer-DeWitt - Feb 17, 2011 2:40 PM ETPosted in: Adam Lashinsky, Enrique Salem, Mac, malware, Microsoft, PC, Symantec, Virus, Vista, Windows, Windows 7, Windows XP -
Are you safe on Facebook?
Mark Zuckerberg's fan page was hacked, scams permeate the news feed, and fake profiles abound. What's Facebook doing about it?
Objections over privacy, or the lack of it, have plagued Facebook for almost as long as it's been around, but only recently has the social network's security become a contentious issue.
Earlier this week, a hacker hijacked CEO Mark Zuckerberg's fan page, and updated his status with a message that started "Let MORE
JP Mangalindan, Writer - Jan 28, 2011 12:21 PM ETPosted in: Email, Facebook, Kate Middleton, malware, Mark Zuckerberg, Muhammad Yunus, Scam, social network, Sophos, Spam -
About those gangs of Russian hackers targeting Macs
"Hey Dimwitt here's a pcworld article about russian hackers targeting Macs. http://tiny.cc/dL4Yi."
I assume that message, sent via Twitter by "chalupatime" Saturday afternoon, was directed at me because I wrote something a few weeks ago called "Why are there no Mac viruses?"
My tortilla-loving friend is correct. There is indeed an article by Gregg Keizer in PC World (as well as in Computerworld) about Apple (AAPL) computers being targeted for malware.
Keizer's source MORE
Philip Elmer-DeWitt - Sep 27, 2009 9:53 AM ET -
Why are there no Mac viruses?
There are, as far as we know, no Mac OS X viruses in the wild.
To prove that assertion wrong, you only have to name one.
Academic proofs of concept and theoretical vulnerabilities don't count. Neither do computer worms, Trojan horses, spyware, adware, spam or any of the other nasty species in the zoology of malware.
That eliminates Inqtana-A, iBotNet, MacSweeper and a handful of other examples of Mac malware usually trotted out at MORE
Philip Elmer-DeWitt - Sep 2, 2009 10:53 AM ET
