Mac Trojan Alert

No more security from obscurity. Now that the Mac OS X platform has become more prevalent, malware has followed.  In the last two weeks, two new trojan horse threats to security.  The first presents itself as a PDF file, “which displays a Chinese-language document on the screen in an attempt to hide its background activity.”

The second is a bit more clever, it presents itself as a flash installer.  If a user tries to install the software, it deactivates security software on the user’s machine.

Apple has updated its anti-malware tools, so the threat is low, but the threats are increasing in number and sophistication.

Security Hole in Apple Batteries

A security hole in the firmware of Apple Mac batteries may well allow for malware to be installed on vulnerable systems… even after a complete reformatting of the hard disk and reinstall of the system.

I wouldn’t be too worried about this, as there is no evidence of this hole being exploited yet, and I would hope a fix would come along shortly, but…

(via Boing Boing)

Facebook Increases Security

Malicious software on Facebook is an increasing problem.  (I’ve written about them here and here).  Recently, Facebook has come up with two different and complementary security measures to fight back against these viruses, worms, malware, and other scams.

First, Facebook has teamed up with Web of Trust to try to identify “risky” links.  By warning users of potentially malicious sites and applications, Facebook hopes to reduce the amount of malicious software running on its system.

Secondly, Facebook has implemented a text message login approval as an opt-in security measure.  If a user tries to login to Facebook from a new computer or device, the system sends a code via SMS to the user to verify the new computer or device. This should reduce the amount of unauthorized users accessing Facebook and legitimate users’ data and slow the propagating of viruses.

Facebook Virus Alert

It appears that my report of recent Facebook viruses is only part of an increasing trend.

The new Facebook viruses use Facebook applications to spread themselves, and spread using a victim’s friend list.  In addition to the photo tagging pretense I identified, these attacks use the pretense of surveys and “liking” a video or image.

As always, the best defense against these attacks is vigilance.