Based on research across established dark web forums, threat actors are targeting macOS, with exploits trading for millions of dollars

  • roofuskit@kbin.social
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    1 year ago

    Apple used to brag about how Macs didn’t get viruses. I used to laugh because it wasn’t that they were that much more secur but because their market share was too small to be a profitable target.

    Now they’ve cultivated the perfect target user base. A large collection of tech ignorant or adverse people who have lots of money to burn.

    • 🦘min0nim🦘@aussie.zone
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      1 year ago

      Well, they were significantly more secure by default than Windows due to various design measures including the separation of user land. And old OS9 was friggin brilliant for a web facing machine back in the day.

      • argv_minus_one@beehaw.org
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        1 year ago

        OS9 ran absolutely everything with full privileges. It was not even remotely secure. It was basically Windows 95-level security.

    • abhibeckert@beehaw.org
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      1 year ago

      When did Apple brag about that? All I can think of is a brief ad campaign where the “PC Guy” had a cold. That’s hardly a claim that Macs have perfect security.

      Apple has, in fact, gone on the record as saying they don’t think the Mac is secure enough, and that’s why iOS is locked down as tight as it is.

  • NotBadAndYou@ttrpg.network
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    1 year ago

    What prompted this increase? Are they targeting a specific business market that predominantly uses MacOS? Or is it due to a recent increase in the availability of Mac exploits?

    • combustible_lemon_engineer@kbin.social
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      It may not even be that much of a real increase. The “1000%” increase chart in the article doesn’t have any y-axis label, which is suspicious. Plus percent increases from a small absolute starting point are misleading.

      Skimming article, it looks like increase is in dark web posts about MacOS zero days and CVEs rather than actual successful attacks.

    • The Doctor@beehaw.org
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      1 year ago

      More and more, companies are giving their sysadmins and coders Macbooks rather than Wintel laptops. It’s been an upward trend in last eight or nine years. I’ve always thought it was to head 'em off at the pass so they won’t install un-remotely managed and un-monitored Linux distros on company equipment. At any rate, a lot of proprietary stuff winds up on corporate Macbooks, which means targets worth going after. As for availability of exploits for OSX, folks have been hoarding them for this kind of situation. These days, you wait for an optimum target environment before you unleash your 0-days.

      • Kazumara@feddit.de
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        1 year ago

        I’ve always thought it was to head 'em off at the pass so they won’t install un-remotely managed and un-monitored Linux distros on company equipment.

        For me it’s not working. Every day of having to use macOS drives me closer to doing this. It’s such a fucking annoying system, even after 2.5 years :-D

  • interolivary@beehaw.org
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    1 year ago

    Welp, maybe I’ll finally have to get around to installing some sort of anti-virus/malware software after 20 years of macOS and/or Linux. At least the system architecture isn’t quite as much of a dumpster fire as Windows’ is, but nothing is invulnerable when there’s enough incentive

    • meseek #2982@lemmy.ca
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      1 year ago

      Naw. This is just FUD. I mean it’s coming from Accenture ffs.

      Keep calm and keep computing.

        • GreatAlbatross@feddit.uk
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          1 year ago

          “Does your company have macs? Mac attacks are up 1000% percent. If you don’t have the IT resources to install antivirus on all your shiny macs, you can pay us to do it for you.”

      • Yep. Seems to be a sensationalized piece that basically boils down to “Mac market share in enterprise is now more than a rounding error, so hackers might start targeting it”

        • meseek #2982@lemmy.ca
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          1 year ago

          Anker did just that. Turned out you could just copy paste the url into VLC and watch someone’s feed without them even knowing. They suppressed the info and hid.

      • interolivary@beehaw.org
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        1 year ago

        Yeah I’m not exactly in a hurry here, but more widespread malware is still just a question of incentive. macOS isn’t invulnerable, it’s just mainly been a smaller and less easy target so it’s not gotten the same sort of attention as Windows

        • meseek #2982@lemmy.ca
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          Every software has holes. Not saying macOS is bullet proof. But it’s much harder to infect thanks to its Unix core and the fact the entire OS is on a read only partition. That with their own anti malware tool (Gatekeeper) that took on a much more active roll in macOS’s defenses come Ventura.

          I’m far more worried Apple replaces macOS or closes it just like all their other OSes and we end up bouncing between jailbreaks.

    • Barry Zuckerkorn@beehaw.org
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      1 year ago

      The general recommendation is to configure your system to allow the use of the minimum number of privileges. If you don’t have the need to use software that doesn’t come from a trusted repository (like the Apple App Store itself, but also things like homebrew), go ahead and turn off the ability to run software from other sources. If you’re coding, make sure your code is properly sandboxed, and that you’re not blindly relying on untested packages (see compromised npm packages). Don’t give apps accessibility or other rights if they don’t need them, etc. And then stay current on all software updates.

      Even zero-days often rely on certain configurations, and you can always lock down the built-in apps to not auto-run or auto-preview things they receive. Some of it requires an active user maintenance to decide how to balance convenience versus security on your own system.

  • crow@beehaw.org
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    1 year ago

    The trick is to use an operating system so niche and different that no one is prepared to hack it.