On Macs “up until recently, Ransomware was not an issue,” Yevgeniy Kapishon writes for Apple Gazette. “Well, it is now a very real threat to Mac users.”
“Although it is not as popular as it is within the Windows-based community… and there are not quite as many Ransomware variants that can infect Mac machines, they are out there,” Kapishon writes. “This means that if Mac Ransomware is already available, expect the threat to grow.”
“The two known variants are Patcher and KeRanger. Both of these Ransomware variants work in a similar way by encrypting the files on a computer and then later demanding a ransom be paid in order to have those files decrypted,” Kapishon writes. “KeRanger has infected about 7,000 users by tricking people into downloading an infected BitTorrent client… Patcher is the newest one and to date, it has affected hundreds of Mac users. This one takes advantage of people, well, people who don’t like to pay for software. A download of an Office Crack/Patcher seemed like a sure thing, but instead of activating your Office, it encrypts files and…wait for it… demands a ransom.”
Read more in the full article here.
MacDailyNews Take: As Kapishon states, the moral of the story here is simple: “Pay for your software and never download cracked software.”
Do not download/install software from untrusted sites.
SEE ALSO:
What to do when ransomware strikes your Mac – October 24, 2017
Mac ransomware author is giving away malicious code to script kiddies – June 12, 2017
New macOS ransomware written in Apple’s Swift spotted in the wild – February 22, 2017
“KeRanger has infected about 7,000 users by tricking people into downloading an infected BitTorrent client… ”
Thank you. This is the first time one of these reports specifically states how the agent gets to the local computer.
Nay, won’t be downloading anything outside of the App Store.
you live such a sheltered life. app store is 99% garbage apps, may as well load some malware on your machine anyways.
You sound like you’ve been “shelted” on many occasions.
You have to laugh when an article conflates the massive malware and ransomware problems of Windows PCs and Macs.
“Although it is not as popular as it is within the Windows-based community… and there are not quite as many Ransomware variants that can infect Mac machines, they are out there…”
Not quite as many…sure. One has affected “about 7,000 users” and the other a “few hundred.” What does this equate to in the Windows PC world? About ten minutes? And who is it affecting? BitTorrent users and software pirates who should know that they are taking huge risks when the authorize the installation of sketchy software on their Macs.
This is such a ridiculous comparison that it falls into the FUD category, in my opinion. There is no reason to believe that ransomware is “now a very real threat to Mac users” or that we should “expect the threat to grow” in magnitude or infection vector anytime soon. FUD.