Sophos Discovers Two New Malware for Mac Computers

According to security firm 'Sophos', it has detected two new variants of malware targeting Apple customers.

Of the two malware, Tored-Fam is a new variant of popular Tored malware family and propagates on the Internet in the form of e-mail attachments. It has been circulating on the Internet since 2008 by collecting e-mail addresses and forwarding itself to them (e-mail addresses).

After thorough analysis of the source code of Tored-Fam, Sophos has concluded that the worm is designed to develop a Mac botnet called 'Raedbot'. Infected computers are linked by a Tunisian-based malware writer dubbed 'Ag_Raed.'

On June 9, 2009, SophosLabs received a message that claimed to have contained the "SRC CODE of new Macintosh Worm." The Canadian lab of the security company quickly responded to the message by releasing OSX/Tored-Fam, a generic method to identify new variants of Tored family.

The file received by Sophos was called ReadIt.txt with a text that says - "RESPECT about what are you talking about me (cybercriminal..) Dont say what you ignore !!!!!!!!"

The second variant of malware is a Trojan known as Jahlav-C. It is apparently embedded in a pornography site by masquerading as an Active video codec, an essential application to see the content of the site. Moreover, the Trojan first came in notice on June 10, 2009.

Graham Cluley, Senior Technology Consultant, Sophos, has said that an increasing number of people are purchasing Apple computers owing to intense marketing and well-designed features. On the other hand, some people are dumping their Windows computer because of excessive number of attacks such spyware installation, virus attacks and pop-up problems, as reported by vnunet on June 11, 2009.

It is possible that people who faced a similar kind of attacks in the past might go to the grumbler areas of the Internet in the early hours of the morning. One of the disadvantages of people switching on to Apple computers from Windows is their indifferent attitude towards nasty things. They become more casual in watching malicious content, said Cluley.

Related article: Spike in Attacks Causes Early Release of Windows Patch

» SPAMfighter News - 6/18/2009