New Mac Threat Alert

Navek



Joined: 01/06/2008
Posts: 2656

Message Posted:
17/04/2009 11:23

Know anyone that's a Mac User?



Then let them know that malware researchers have discovered what appears to be the first Mac OSX botnet, aka MacBot or iBotnet and its receiving a substantial amount of industry and media interest.



Early estimates suggest that thousands of people have unknowingly downloaded the infected files. Don't let yourself be one of them...



In a nutshell the botnet is launching a number of malware variants inside pirated copies of popular Mac based software in order to take control of the infected Mac machine.

First and foremost make sure that you and your fellow Mac users, exercise caution, have Mac specific security software installed and that your existing version of iAntiVirus is up to date - there's a free version or you can purchase a version with full functionality and support. It's also vital that you enable and install the latest Mac security updates.



Regards

PC Tools Team

Navek



Joined: 01/06/2008
Posts: 2656

Message Posted:
17/04/2009 11:32

Hi Folks,

Just received this alert,

on XP myself so does not effect me.

Some others may be Mac users,

so you have been warned.

Good luck,

Navek

Littlenige



Joined: 24/12/2006
Posts: 3594

Message Posted:
17/04/2009 11:39

Hans the cloged crusader knows all about macs................







yep white ones as well









( joke hans)

DutchCrusader



Joined: 19/05/2008
Posts: 11281

Message Posted:
17/04/2009 14:52

RE msg 1, Navek > malware researchers have discovered what appears to be the first Mac OSX botnet <



=> Rubbish, Navek, a fake alert. Why? Here's why: "Malware hunters at Symantec have discovered a direct link between a malicious file embedded in pirated copies of Apple’s iWork 09 software and what appears to be the first Mac OS X botnet launching denial-of-service attacks."



It's commercial scaremongering. Try Google and youy'll read all about it.



By the way: no pirated software on your Mac? No problem. It's that easy.

Navek



Joined: 01/06/2008
Posts: 2656

Message Posted:
17/04/2009 15:42

Hi Hans,

I have emailed you direct the original email sent to me.

If there is no threat,

good.

Was only passing on info from what I thought was a reliable source.

http://www.pctools.com

I hope this company is not telling porkies.

If so, Mac users might want to reply direct!

On Windows XP myself.

Good luck.

Navek

david123


Joined: 07/07/2008
Posts: 393

Message Posted:
17/04/2009 15:46

Hi all,



Thanks for the info.



Will check this out.



David.

petez


Joined: 04/12/2008
Posts: 560

Message Posted:
17/04/2009 15:52

There are dodgy things going round for Macs,



Have to watch out for sites telling you, you need to install a specific player to watch movies, (if you are on a mac). Luckily there are very few, and these are porn sites.



Best thing to do is run regular software updates, and if it says you need a player, go to the official site and download it from there.. not a link from another site.

poodle


Joined: 24/05/2008
Posts: 21

Message Posted:
19/04/2009 11:43

I use a Mac and haven't had a problem. I have never used an virus protection and have not had one virus.



I do use something called 'Little Snitch', that alerts you to all incoming pings or connection attempts. I've found that I often get as many as 10-15 attempts when using Turkcell 3g. Not all of them are malicious and most of them don't look like something that would affect a Mac, but it's good to know that something is trying to make contact. Many of the connections are what apps do when trying to automatically update and so forth (and are fine).



http://www.obdev.at/products/littlesnitch/index.html



Little Snitch informs you whenever a program attempts to establish an outgoing Internet connection. You can then choose to allow or deny this connection, or define a rule how to handle similar, future connection attempts. This reliably prevents private data from being sent out without your knowledge. Little Snitch runs inconspicuously in the background and it can also detec

AndyP



Joined: 18/04/2008
Posts: 517

Message Posted:
19/04/2009 12:05

Not wanting to get into a big debate about this but the comment " I have never used an virus protection and have not had one virus." is interesting.



If you do not have anything to tell you that you have a virus, how would you know that you have never had one!!!



A bit like turning your phone off and saying "it's not on because I do not get any calls!!" How would you know??????....

Littlenige



Joined: 24/12/2006
Posts: 3594

Message Posted:
19/04/2009 12:17

is it just a rumour or do mac users not have a sence of humour ?

DutchCrusader



Joined: 19/05/2008
Posts: 11281

Message Posted:
19/04/2009 20:04

RE msg 10, Nigel > is it just a rumour or do mac users not have a sence of humour ? <



=> Not true, Nige. Mac users laugh day and night about the zillion problems PC users face. PS. Your laptop allright again after this devastating virus infection?



Re msg 9, AndyP > If you do not have anything to tell you that you have a virus, how would you know that you have never had one!!! <



=> AndyP is right. Although there is relatively very little malicious software for the Mac - you can't be sure about the safety of your Mac without free or commercial anti-virus software. I strongly suggest you go to this website http://www.clamav.net/ and from now on be prepared for what nasty people out there try to do on your Mac's hard drive. (I use ClamAV and it has detected and removed more tricky software than I expected!).

Goonerboy


Joined: 01/04/2009
Posts: 723

Message Posted:
19/04/2009 20:16

Would it be fair to say then that its a "Big" Mac threat...

Coachie



Joined: 29/07/2008
Posts: 2135

Message Posted:
19/04/2009 21:15

well I had a message off Symantec telling me to uninstall Norton 360 bceause aproblem had been found during my registration renewal.Went to their site used their tool to uninstall the 360 that I had and downloaded their v3 version.A few weeks later I was having trouble on my PC and my daughter came up and had a look at it and foun d there was an error on the new v3 version,so have had to disable it until I find out what Symantic have to say.Currently using PCTools internet security and at the moment nothing gets past that...

poodle


Joined: 24/05/2008
Posts: 21

Message Posted:
19/04/2009 23:45

Okay, then, to clarify: I have never had anything on my Mac (virus or whatever) that has forced me to reinstall the system. I can't say the same about my Windows machines.



Yawn.