“Instead, social engineered malware is on the rise against Mac users, and that includes popup adware, free download malware, and even some applications which are sold as utilities but called malware by users,” Jack D. Miller writes for Mac360.
“Social malware acts more like a Trojan horse to infect a Mac with nefarious files,” Miller writes. “Mac users are often conned into installing, or allowing utilities to be installed on their Macs, only to find out later that it’s really malware.”
“How do you get rid of all these new forms of malware? Anti-virus applications might help,” Miller writes. “DetectX helps you find keyloggers and other malware, including leftovers from the popular and highly criticized MacKeeper utility.”
More info, screenshots, and links in the full article here.
MacDailyNews Take: You don’t want MacKeeper.
If you have MacKeeper on your Mac, you can also follow these instructions to uninstall it and never install it again.
SEE ALSO:
Controversial MacKeeper security program opens critical hole on Mac computers – May 12, 2015
What ‘MacKeeper’ is and why you should avoid it – January 21, 2015
How to uninstall MacKeeper from your Mac – December 19, 2014
MacKeeper should be called Mac(BLEEP)er.
The bastards responsible for MacKeeper should be shot.
mackeeper is a gold star member of the cockroach mafia
It’s also a frequent popup advertiser on MDN.
Yes, I can see it NOW on this MDN page
Content/ad blocking for iOS can’t come soon enough….
Ssshhhh, MDN needs the money.
Here’s what I do when I see a MacKeeper ad on a website. I click it. Every. F#$&@g. Time. MacKeeper pays whenever an ad is click so I figure why not?
Who knows what is in their cookies…
So in order to screw them out of two pennies you are willing to click on something that will instantly load crap onto your Mac? I hope those pennies are worth it.
“Mac users are often conned into installing, or allowing utilities to be installed on their Macs, only to find out later that it’s really malware.”
I don’t think Mac users are ‘often conned’ into installing anything. Perhaps ‘some mac users have been conned’?
Conned users…. perhaps those poor souls who still use Windoze might fit the bill better!
Well, I can’t count how many times an alert has popped up telling me that Adobe Flash needs an update (after a new security flaw is found). I should go to Adobe’s web site directly and download from there. But I admit that sometimes I just click the link in the alert box. What if one of those alerts was bogus and I installed malware instead? Could happen to anyone. Just sayin’.
A couple years back there was a plague of fake Adobe Flash installer Trojan horse malware for Mac as well as unwitting victims. I counted 19 variations of the ‘Flashback’ malware. Yes, it happens!
Fake ‘required video codec’ Trojan horses have been another favorite con on the web.
Fake Java .jars; Fake Bitcoin mining apps; Fake anti-virus; Even fake WAREZ software, which is the ultimate irony.
7over, I am sad to report that there really are what I call ‘LUSERS’ out in the world, those people who somehow attract security problems. For worse and worst, some people really do install and even buy MacKeeper. They need a helping hand and our sympathy.
Conned is the correct word. A single mouse-click on something, such as the play button a video on some site, may be doing a whole lot more than starting the video. I do my share of web design and believe me, one single mouse click can be scripted to do a ton of things, including performing secret downloads, searching your hard drive, grabbing files and uploading, and just about anything else. All in the background and without you knowing it.
If you ever encounter some odd message,never click on it (including a No thanks or cancel button). Quit your browser, reset it, clear your cache and wipe the cookies/data.
AdwareMedic is great, scrubs the aware safely & quickly…and it’s free. http://www.adwaremedic.com
DetectX has vastly improved since I first tried it out and reviewed it at MacUpdate this past January. Highly recommended! It’s a bit paranoid about certain mediocre utilities. But that’s not a detriment.
ANYTHING that effectively kicks awful MacKeeper off victim’s computer is fine with me! Would that MacKeeper would simply die and go to hell, where it belongs.