Number: IRCNE2015112689
Date: 2015/11/18
According to “tripwire”, according to recent research, 2015 saw a record number of Mac OS X malware attacks, with experts confidently expecting the number to continue to soar significantly in the coming months.
Security researchers at Bit9 + Carbon Black observed that in 2015 alone, the number of OS X malware samples has been five times greater than in 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013 and 2014 combined.
The study examined more than 1,400 unique samples from a variety of sources, including open sources, peer research, black lists, contagion malware dumps, as well as the firm’s independent research and experience from incident response engagements involving OS X.
During the 10-week analysis, the researchers found that most OS X malware would utilize features of the operating system, with the most common being LaunchDaemons/LaunchAgents, login items and browser plugins.
“Malware more often resided in user-land and leveraged persistence mechanisms that supported this as opposed to attempting to reside in kernel-land by writing custom kernel extensions,” read the report.
The firm recommends consumers ensure they have an antivirus software program installed, and that it is running with the latest update.
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