Protect your Mac from malware in program updates
The popularity of Macs for daily use has been growing steadily through the last dozen years. According to Statcounter, in 2009, only 3.76% of users chose a computer/laptop with a nibbled apple on its side/lid, and in 2023, this figure peaked to 21.32%. While certainly having features of a cult about it – you have to agree with that – Apple couldn’t have reached this sort of progress without making their hardware and software more readily available to the masses in all senses. But, where you have an upside, there’s pretty much always a downside, too.
Malware. The first virus for Mac per se appeared as far back as in 1982, but the real threat was virtually non-existent until 2010s, when malicious software coded specifically for Apple computers became as varied as that for Windows PCs, and quite common (SpyHunter made a great job of documenting the history of Mac malware; you can get their software here). Kaspersky, for example, did not release an antivirus suite for Mac until 2009.
Software updates as source of threats for Mac computers
Today, hacker groups (or ATPs, as they are called in the professional community) all over the world target Macs as much as Windows-powered computers, in most cases. The recent example is an intricate campaign reported by Volexity, a cybersecurity company. They revealed a successful effort by StormBamboo (a.k.a. StormCloud, Evasive Panda, and Daggerfly) to compromise an unnamed Internet service provider (ISP) and subsequently point certain traffic managed thereby to servers returning malicious code under the cover of software updates.
This latter fact makes the attack especially dangerous. Infection of a computer with malware involves opening a file, launching an app, etc., and while the awareness of phishing scams and similar patterns of malicious program distribution is growing, which makes people vigilant, updates are something taken for granted, and routinely trusted.
In this particular case, the malware distributed under the guise of updates was MACMA. It was first spotted in the wild by Google’s Threat Analysis Group in 2021; the malware is a full-fledged backdoor that lets the culprits behind it fingerprinting the infected system, log keystrokes, record audio (if the device has a mic), capture screenshots, upload and download files, and run commands in the terminal. This spells full control, give or take.
Mac Informer protects from malware in software updates
As the case described above shows, malware distribution patterns diverge into domains previously considered safe from them, like software updates. You have antivirus software for Mac, of course, but routine installation of a newer version of this or that program may not trigger alarms there.
To safeguard your Mac from malware spread in updates, use Mac Informer. Lightweight and secure, this application
- serves only 100% clean programs checked with industry-grade antivirus setups,
- gives you links checked through the Google Safe Browsing service.
Mac Informer is totally free, easy to use (as an updater, it is fully autonomous), and useful as a software exploration and try-out tool that doesn’t attach strings in the process.
Download Mac Informer, safe and secure software updater and exploration tool
