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Site changes
Posted on May 20th, 2013 at 4:15 PM EDT
After having a lot of issues with my former web host for the last couple years, culminating in two days’ worth of off-and-on downtime, I have finally bitten the bullet and changed hosts. It may take a little time for everyone’s domain name servers to point to the proper site, but if you’re reading this article, you’re seeing the new site. (Folks whose DNS servers haven’t updated won’t see this article, as it’s not on the old site.) Read the rest of this entry »
New Mac spyware found at freedom conference
Posted on May 17th, 2013 at 6:42 AM EDT
F-Secure announced yesterday the discovery of a new piece of Mac malware, which was discovered at the annual Oslo Freedom Forum on a freedom of speech activist’s computer. This malware, which they are calling OSX/KitM.A, appears to take screenshots about every 20 seconds, and presumably (though they did not say this outright) uploads them to a remote server. Most interestingly, this malware is signed with an Apple Developer ID! Read the rest of this entry »
Beware of fake Mac sales!
Posted on May 11th, 2013 at 9:01 AM EDT
I have seen a number of complaints on the Apple Support Communities forums lately about fake Macs being sold online. Thus far, every complaint has centered around a 17″ retina MacBook Pro, sold for pretty exorbitant prices ($5,000 in the most recent case). In all cases that I have seen, folks have ended up coming to the ASC to complain that the machine has not arrived yet. Read the rest of this entry »
CallMe malware persists
Posted on April 25th, 2013 at 1:59 PM EDT
F-Secure has blogged today about a slightly new variant of CallMe that has been seen in the wild. Everything about the malware seems to be the same, except for file names and the command server that the malware “calls home” to. This is certainly small news, but it does show that this malware is still in active distribution, at least. Read the rest of this entry »
The problem with website threat scanning
Posted on April 19th, 2013 at 4:38 PM EDT
I’ve been blacklisted. Well, not me, per se, but The Safe Mac website has been, by a number of website threat scanning services. How that happened is a bit of a disturbing story, and I know that I, for one, will never look at such services in quite the same way again. We’ve had discussions of trust before. This time, I’m going to ask you to aim a critical eye at the services you may be counting on to keep you from visiting malicious websites. Read the rest of this entry »
Boycott Softonic
Posted on April 16th, 2013 at 9:53 PM EDT
Just a few hours ago, I wrote about a VLC installer on Softonic that was installing adware. (Adware that was not authorized to be included with VLC, according to a post by Jean-Baptiste Kempf of VLC.) It has just come to my attention that the same thing is happening with UnRarX, and on downloading that software from Softonic, I verified that the installer behaves in the same way. It looks like Softonic is wrapping free software in a custom installer that installs adware, obviously to generate revenue for Softonic. I’m sure that the list of software being abused in this way will continue to grow over the next few days. This is despicable behavior, and I would ask everyone to boycott Softonic until they change their behavior. Read the rest of this entry »
Safari gains additional Java security features
Posted on April 16th, 2013 at 9:17 PM EDT
Safari 6.0.4 and 5.1.9, supporting Mac OS X 10.6 and later, were released today. The primary change is the ability to block or allow Java on a site-by-site basis. This is obviously a welcome feature for those who have to use Java, though caution is still warranted. Keep in mind that there’s really no such thing as a “safe” site online these days. Any site could be hacked, and could contain malicious Java applets. I don’t advise using the “Allow Always” setting, ever!
ChatZum adware added to VLC on Softonic
Posted on April 16th, 2013 at 4:44 PM EDT
It was brought to my attention today by an astute reader that there is a copy of VLC, currently being hosted on Softonic, which has had adware added to it. Of course, I had to investigate, and what I found is very concerning. That report turns out to be completely true, and worse, the adware installs components on your system even when you opt out of installing it! Read the rest of this entry »
How to reinstall Mac OS X from scratch
Posted on April 11th, 2013 at 11:11 AM EDT
For whatever reason, you have decided that you want to reinstall the system from scratch, restoring your machine to an “out-of-the-box” state. Regardless of the reason, this is not something to be undertaken lightly. The possibility of data loss looms any time you erase your primary hard drive. Further, if you do the job wrong, whatever problem you’re trying to solve may not even be solved. Fortunately, there are some easy steps you can take to do the job right. Read the rest of this entry »
Adobe patches more Flash vulnerabilities
Posted on April 10th, 2013 at 6:49 AM EDT
Adobe has released another Flash Player update to fix what they called “critical” vulnerabilities. Although no Mac malware is yet being installed through this hole, to my knowledge, it would still be wise to update as soon as possible. If you have not set Flash to update itself automatically, you can update it through the Flash pane of System Preferences, or can download the latest version from Adobe’s site.