Kaspersky Lab: The growing popularity of its products Apple Lossless Audio CODEC (ALAC), has led to an increase in the interest of digital criminals for OS X and iOS. This poses a threat to both data, privacy and users' money.
Research of Kaspersky Lab and B2B International revealed that one in four Mac users encountered threats from a malware program within the last 12 months. The survey also showed that the 21% of these digital attacks led to financial losses, including the cost of purchasing system recovery software or using IT services to eradicate "infections".
The Wirelurker, a recently detected Trojan, is a "live" example of malware designed to specifically target Apple products. Six months before its detection, this Trojan had been downloaded over 356.000 times, via an alternative app store, επομένως θα μπορούσε να είχε «μολύνει» ένα σημαντικό αριθμό υπολογιστών. Αυτό που καθιστά το Wirelurker μοναδικό, είναι το γεγονός ότι εκμεταλλεύτηκε μια άγνωστη μέχρι τότε ευπάθεια, για να εξαπλωθεί σε συσκευές Apple με λογισμικό iOS που ήταν συνδεδεμένες με έναν«μολυσμένο» υπολογιστή.
Trojan could even "infect" devices that were not "jail-breaking" in order to "download" applications from third-party sources. As a result, operating system OS X users, generally considered safe from malware attacks, "inflicted" unintentional iOS devices, which were also considered safe.
However, viruses and other types of malicious software are not the only threats to Apple device users. Network attacks and online fraud, for example, do not require malware to be installed on the device which is under attack. Phishing is one such threat.
Interestingly, the percentage of OS X users who have experienced financial threats is even higher than the general population who have experienced financial threats. 51% of users with computers running OS X said they faced financial threats in the past year. Among all users, this percentage had risen to 43%. The statistics data υποστηρίζονται από δεδομένα που συγκεντρώθηκαν από το Kaspersky Security Network. Από όλες τις επιθέσεις phishing σε OS X που εντοπίστηκαν από την Kaspersky Lab την περίοδο Νοέμβριος 2013 – Οκτώβριος 2014, το 44% είχε στόχο την κλοπή οικονομικών δεδομένων. Σε άλλα περιβάλλοντα, το ποσοστό του οικονομικού phishing ήταν 26%.
OS X users should be alert to other threats that target multiple platforms, such as software vulnerabilities that are installed on their devices. For example, vulnerability Shellshock, which was unveiled in September of 2014, gives digital criminals the ability to run any code, even malicious, on a computer.
If cybercriminals discover these security holes before anyone else, they have the opportunity to exploit the vulnerability for malicious purposes before the operating system manufacturer can fix the problem.
In other words, none system cannot be considered completely safe from digital threats and for this reason additional tools are required that ensure online security. Kaspersky Internet Security for Mac, which is integrated into the Kaspersky Internet Security – Multi-Device 2015 solution, offers effective protection against malware and blocks network attacks and phishing attacks.
