ESET Threat Blog

The recent MacDefender Trojan has been receiving “rebranding” facelifts since it came out. It has now been deployed as MacProtector, MacDetector, MacSecurity, Apple Security Center, and there are no doubt more iterations to come. The malware has been updated, and now sports an improved UI that looks like a native Mac OSX application, unlike the … Read More…

You may have seen some headlines today about a New Java Trojan that attacks Macs. It turns out that it also attacks Windows and Linux users as well. The Trojan pretends to be a video on Facebook. A user gets a message asking “is this you in this video” with a link. Upon clicking the … Read More…

[C. Nicholas Burnett, the manager for ESET LLC's tier three technical support, contributed the following guest blog article on the FireSheep plugin for Firefox.  Thank you very much, Carl!  Aryeh Goretsky]
The past several days have seen the security community abuzz about a program presented in San Diego at ToorCon 12 this last weekend called FireSheep. … Read More…

[Updated]
Mac security firm Intego has reported that a spyware application it calls OSX/OpinionSpy is being spread as a program called PremierOpinion. 
According to Intego, the user is required to install the program, which is claimed to be a market research utility, as part of the installation process for a number of screensavers and at least one other application made freely available … Read More…

The Apple iPad is the current gadget du jour amongst the digerati and has been seeing strong presales, with estimates as high as 150,000 units on the first day.  With such attention in the media and the blogosphere, it is no wonder that both legitimate businesses and scammers have taken to using it as bait … Read More…

No, I'm not talking about a newly-discovered and virulent OS X upconversion of SevenDust or AutoStart 9805.
Mac Virus is a site founded by Susan Lesch in the 1990s, when pre-OS X Mac-specific malware was still a serious issue - AutoStart in particular caused significant damage back then – and cross-platform macro viruses were also a major problem. … Read More…

I’m often exasperated by blinkered mindsets in the Mac community, of the security-related kind that Randy highlighted in a recent blog. You might have picked up a certain irritation in some of my blogs around the end of last month relating to Snow Leopard and malware detection, too. So it was refreshing to come across a light … Read More…

There is an interesting and humorous work of fiction at http://www.appleinsider.com/articles/09/09/07/inside_mac_os_x_snow_leopard_malware_protection.html. Humorous as long as you don’t believe it!
The article starts out saying “Safari, like other modern browsers, already flags certain websites that are known to be used to distribute malicious software”. That’s a nice layer of defense, but there are sites many sites that … Read More…

An interesting comment was made to my last blog on Snow Leopard, Mac malware and all that. I’ve approved the comment, but since people who read the blog earlier won’t necessarily go back to see what comments it’s attracted, I’ll answer it here, at more length.
Mac User said that "Currently, the only way to get malware … Read More…

I forwarded this to myself from another account yesterday because I thought it was one of the laziest 419 scam messages I’d ever seen.
From: British Tobacco Company
Sent: 27 August 2009 19:46
Subject: Contact Mr Paul Adams
Congratulations! Your e-mail ID was among the selected lucky winners of £1,000.000.00 GBP in our BRITISH TOBACCO PROMO.Get back to … Read More…