Mac malware

[braumeister]

Interesting report from Elastic Security Labs.

They found that 50% of malware on MacOS comes from one app: MacKeeper.

It claims to "keep your Mac clean and safe with zero effort" but it also has a reputation for being difficult to completely uninstall.

Also in the report, it seems that 6.2% of malware ends up on MacOS devices, compared to 54.4% on Windows and 39.4% on Linux.

https://www.elastic.co/security-labs/

 

[eytonxav]

Seems this report should put that company out of business. However, glad to hear Apple is still the most least affected OS from malware.

 

[ERD50]

Where on that link is the report you quoted from? Those numbers seem odd, I'm curious as to the methodology.

-ERD50

 

[Rianne]

The Apple help desk tells me there's no need for Malwarebytes, which for some reason I think it's extra protection. I have Malwarebytes loaded on my iMac.

 

[braumeister]

Where on that link is the report you quoted from? Those numbers seem odd, I'm curious as to the methodology.

-ERD50

I didn't save it.

 

[audreyh1]

MacKeeper is the only thing I’ve had pop-up occasionally and I’ve avoided it. It’s been a very long time now since I’ve seen it, but the first couple of times it popped up it was very confusing and I’m glad I closed the app immediately.

 

[braumeister]

MacKeeper is the only thing I’ve had pop-up occasionally and I’ve avoided it. It’s been a very long time now since I’ve seen it, but the first couple of times it popped up it was very confusing and I’m glad I closed the app immediately.

What I remember from that report is that it has a number of vulnerabilities (and they have been in it for years), so the bad guys have several ways to covertly insert malware when it's running in a connected computer. Nasty stuff. There is a new version since a year or two ago, supposedly safe but I still wouldn't trust it.

 

[audreyh1]

No, don’t touch that stuff.

 

[yakers]

The Apple help desk tells me there's no need for Malwarebytes, which for some reason I think it's extra protection. I have Malwarebytes loaded on my iMac.

I have Malwarebytes on my mac, no problems but not sure it does anything useful either.