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You’ve heard it more than once, I’m sure: “I cannot get infected because I have a Mac.”

Well, not only is it not true, but my experience has been that while Mac viruses and other malware are far fewer in number, they are often as bad or worse than the garden variety you encounter on Windows. The reason? There are far fewer of them. Malwarebytes tackles this in a recent article.

One tall tale is Macs are impervious to malware, so you needn’t worry about cybersecurity solutions. Antivirus and anti-malware protection is for the PCs. We’re here to bust that myth.

Source: Anti-malware for Mac | Malwarebytes Labs

spy silhouette

Technically, I would definitely call this “spyware” rather than the run-of-the-mill adware if the adware uploads screenshots!

A new adware has been discovered that performs a severe privacy breach by uploading a screenshot of the user’s active windows to a server under their control. This means that any info on the screen, whether it is a tax return, password manager, or corporate secrets is now available the adware company.

Source: Adware uploads Screenshot of your Active Windows without your Permission

The nastiness just keeps getting worse.

Macs have joined the ransomware party, Petya gives us a new twist on an old attack, and now ransomware targets hospitals. On top of that, the US and Canadian authorities have issued a joint cyber alert that things are only going to get worse. Continue reading “Malware News: Hospital, Petya and Mac Ransomware”

This is a suggested template for malware removal guidelines document.

This document consists of a set of suggested guidelines and steps to aid in the successful removal of malware. No set of steps can 100% guaranty the state of any machine as far as malware infection goes, but following this guide will hopefully provide a framework to make malware removal more complete, more successful and less likely to end up with wiping the user’s system and starting over.

Factors in determining this must balance the inconvenience of the enduser in needing to backup and restore documents and settings of the various applications they use on a daily basis against the need for security and time allocated in cleaning the malware off of the machine.

Continue reading “Malware Removal Guidelines”