- Saturday, 21 November 2009
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Don't think there are no crocodiles because the water is calm - Malay proverb
Hackers target Macs
A BUNCH of Russian hackers are offering 43 cents for each Mac that their partners in crime can infect with bogus video software.
The move has been cited by insecurity experts at Sophos as a sign that Mac users' security by obscurity days are coming to an end.
While 43 cents is not much, the idea is that it will encourage hackers to target Apple's PCs for recruitment into botnets. Any Ibotnet will probably want a lot of victims, so 43 cents for each smug scalp will work out to a lot of dosh.
In a presentation (PDF) at the Virus Bulletin 2009 security conference in Geneva, Switzerland, Sophos researcher Dmitry Samosseiko spoke of his interactions with the Russian "Partnerka." This is a group of web affiliates who rake in oodles of cash from spam and malware, mostly from phony drug sites.
Apparently there are affiliates dedicated to the sale and promotion of fake Mac software. One group operating a few months ago was offering 43 cents for each install and offered various promo materials in the form of Mac OS 'video players'.
Symantec said that Samosseiko's evidence shows Mac users, who often believe that only Windows users suffer from malware, are increasingly at risk on the web.
Media friendly Sophos principal analyst Graham Cluley said that it was not good news that financially motivated criminals are looking at Apple Macs as well as Windows as a market for their activities.
This is because most Mac users believe that faith in Steve Jobs protects them from all malware. To them, malware is only for Windows users because OS X is perfect and totally secure.
The fact that Mac OS X's security is the stuff of jokes at security experts' parties does not matter to the Apple faithful.
Since the OS only has five per cent of the market, most of its users get left alone, Cluely said.
However some of the cyber criminals are starting to see these five percent as a soft target, particularly since rather few Apple fanboys have anything like security software installed. µ
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It's not so much that we don't like it, although mostly we don't.
It's just that it's bad
Be honest now -- having a massive security hole in your security engine is a bit of a fail, isn't it.
No matter the platform and its security, being an idiot (i.e. downloading "free" software, pr0n, games, opening suspicious mails) - always sends you into trouble ...
For a less evangelical Windows fanboy/Mac-hating view (as is typical of Farrell), read this article http://brainstormtech.blogs.fortune.cnn.com/2009/09/27/about-those-russian-hackers-targeting-macs/#more-12034
"Apple PC's"
People who still think Apples aren't PCs.
Also: people who confuse PCs (plural)with PC's (singular, posessive).
This has been exposed as Sophos quoting Sophos. The 43 cents does not exist and the site has disappeared.
Dear Hobbyist comrades,
There are a few points we wish to clarify.
Steve Jobs makes 50 cents for showing up ... and another 50 cents is based on his performance.
You will be earning 43 cents, as you cannot possibly expect to earn as much as Steve Jobs.
When we say "bogus video software", that means: do not forget the software, for we already have all of the bogus video.
We feel impressed to highlight: "Triumph of the Nerds", starring Steve Jobs when he was a broader guy, if he had dropped acid once or gone off to an ashram when he was younger.
Also "Steve Job's DEC in a Power Vax" should be censored.
Remember your motivation. Steve challenges us:
"if you want to spend the rest of your life selling sugared water or do you want a chance to put a ding in the universe?
make your jaw drop... They're babes in the woods.
Things are getting strange, I'm starting to worry;
This could be a case for Mulder and Scully.
I think I can help turn Alvy and Ed.
But the products suck! There's no sex in them anymore!
Nobody has tried to swallow us since I've been here.
I think they are afraid how we would taste.
We made the buttons on the screen look so good you'll want to lick them.
You've baked a really lovely cake, but then you've used dog shit for frosting.
You are shamelessly copying us.
It takes forever. By the time you've gone through all that, the girl's got up and left! You're much better off to take one of your earbuds out and put it in her... You had me at scrolling."
To me, the most critical thing in the hobby market right now is the lack of good software.
As the majority of hobbyists must be aware, most of you steal your software. Hardware must be paid for, but software is something to share. Who cares if the people who worked on it get paid?
Anybody who thinks a little 9,000-line program that's distributed free and can be cloned by anyone is going to affect anything we do at Microsoft has his head screwed on wrong.
Just write to me at 1180 Alvarado SE, #114, Albuquerque, New Mexico, 87108. Nothing would please me more than being able to hire programmers and deluge the hobby bogus video software market with delebrities.
And one more thing...
Maybe your "non-PC" luxury machine is part of that botnet as we speak.
Are the web designers of The Inquirer trying to fool people into thinking that this is The Register? It's a pretty crappy knock-off, from the styling to the writing.
I gotta say as a linux user. I've been under brute force dictionary attack going on 6 months or so now. I'm really starting to get worried seeing as I have commonly used names and passwords on my system. Ok I totally don't. If you don't pick some present or past internet meme as a password this is going to be completely full of fail. Now if it was windows. All you have to do is click the wrong email, or visit the wrong site and you're part of a botnet. I think this is going to be way way more work than it's worth.