It really was inevitable wasn't it, and recently during a security discussion with peers I predicted that attention would move off of Windows as the single attack target of choice to include ... Apple MAC's ... Why? Because, it is a new market for the little hacking monkeys to monetize.
It's the perfect environment to compromise, reason being not many people who own MAC's have an empty bank account or are on minimum\low wage compared to Windows users. I have no research to back that up other than common sense. It makes sense if you think about it, Apple has what is called a Fanboi pricing model, and completely controls their hardware therefore their users are forced to pay a lot more money for their toys, and on a regular basis they have to upgrade their hardware even though the upgrade brings fractional benefits, but they will do it nethertheless; And it is a trendy toy, which means people with higher than normal disposable incomes are into them. The only comparison I can think of in the Windows world is gamers who pimp out their hardware to gaming spec. If you can get a MAC users Credit Card details you probably can plunder more than for the average Windows user. I base this on market penetration for Windows being above 90% which means a very diverse and wide ranging economic demographic whereas MAC has less penetration amongst the rank and file of consumers. If I was a hacker this is what I'd be thinking, it is so obvious to anyone that cares to put two and two together!
So onto the story that got me writing this blog post. Am linking to Slashdot since they can handle the millions of people (lol) viewing my blog coming to visit them:
http://apple.slashdot.org/story/12/03/28/2059230/maccontrol-trojan-being-used-in-targeted-attacks-against-os-x-users
Qoute:
Researchers have found a new attack that employs two separate pieces of malware, a malicious Word document and some techniques for maintaining persistence on compromised machine
Yes maintaining persistence on compromised machines. The trigger, the word document is just one of many delivery mechanisms they will come up with, plug it and they will find another. Key here is that once on the system these folk can persist their code and I'm sure they will find other ways to achieve this too. That is all new, and very worrying for MAC users. Or it should be.
Prepare to be boarded!
