“The FBI has solved the final mystery surrounding a strain of Mac malware that was used by an Ohio man to spy on people for 14 years,” Catalin Cimpanu reports for ZDNet. “The man, 28-year-old Phillip Durachinsky, was arrested in January 2017, and charged a year later, in January 2018.”
“US authorities say he created the Fruitfly Mac malware (Quimitchin by some AV vendors) back in 2003 and used it until 2017 to infect victims and take control off their Mac computers to steal files, keyboard strokes, watch victims via the webcam, and listen in on conversations via the microphone,” Cimpanu reports. “Court documents reveal Durachinsky wasn’t particularly interested in financial crime but was primarily focused on watching victims, having collected millions of images on his computer, including many of underage children.”
“During all this time, one mystery remained. How was this malware infecting victims, and how was its creator spreading it around?” Cimpanu reports. “This mystery was solved earlier today by [former NSA analyst, Patrick Wardle], who discovered an FBI flash alert sent earlier this year, on March 5. Durachinsky had used a technique know as port scanning to identify internet or network-connected Macs that were exposing remote access ports with weak or no passwords. He then logged into these remote systems via the open service ports and installed and hid Fruitfly on users’ computers.”
Read more in the full article here.
MacDailyNews Take: Yuck. Disgusting creeper.
Call us paranoid, but… that’s why we use camJAMR Webcam Covers on our Macs. They’re black, so they work perfectly with our iMacs and they’re removable/reusable. We’ve stuck and unstuck them hundreds of times. We just leave them on and peel them aside when we want to use the FaceTime HD camera cameras.
SEE ALSO:
Man charged over ‘FruitFly’ Creepsterware; spied on users via infected Windows PCs’ and Macs’ cameras and microphones – January 10, 2018
Google engineer proves any iPhone app with camera permission can spy on you – October 26, 2017
Mac malware undetected for years allows webcam photos, key-logging, and more – July 25, 2017
Mysterious Mac malware ‘FruitFly’ has infected hundreds of victims for years – July 24, 2017
How to completely disable your Mac’s FaceTime camera – March 1, 2017
Newly discovered Mac/Linux malware ‘Fruitfly’ watches your every move – January 19, 2017
How to keep your Mac’s camera from spying on you, no tape required – December 8, 2016
Mark Zuckerberg covers his MacBook’s camera and microphone with tape – June 22, 2016
How to disable the iSight camera on your Mac – February 19, 2015
Orwellian: UK government, with aid from US NSA, intercepted webcam images from millions of users – February 27, 2014
Sextortion warning: It’s masking tape time for webcams – June 28, 2013
Research shows how Mac webcams can spy on their users without warning light – December 18, 2013
Ex-official: FBI can secretly activate an individual’s webcam without indicator light – December 9, 2013
Lower Merion report: MacBook webcams snapped 56,000 clandestine images of high schoolers – April 20, 2010