Apple computers are notorious for its secure operating system as well as for their high performance in comparison to its competitors, yet in recent events hackers targeted Macintosh computers using a harmful type of software known as ransomware.
The software is one of the most aggressive cyber threats as it encrypts data from the infected machine in order to oblige users to pay a ransom so they can retrieve their data, said researchers at Palo Alto Network Inc on an interview with Reuters.
It appears as if hackers somehow found a way to hack the tech giant company’s products, thought to be immune to these kinds of cyber threats but proved wrong, as reported on Sunday. Getting a computer virus is often considered as tiresome because it usually takes to format the computer to get rid of the malware.
But the ransomware isn’t just a computer virus, as it literally takes the user’s computer hostage until the settlement is paid, which has been reported to be 1 bitcoin or $400 before the information can be retrieved. The ransomware infected torrent client Transmission over the weekend, yet researchers at Palo Alto Networks were able to discover the virus called KeRanger.
Although the causes of the infection of the Macintosh computer are still unclear, this is the first record of a ransomware affecting Apple products:
“It’s possible that Transmission’s official website was compromised and the files were replaced by re-compiled malicious versions, but we can’t confirm how this infection occurred,” said Palo Alto Networks in a statement.
Unfortunately for Apple users, there were more than 6,500 downloads of the torrent client during the time that the infected version of Transmission was available. However, researchers were able to block the malicious ransomware by updating its software in order to remove the virus from the devices of Mac users.
The security on the website as well as on the backup databases has been tightening and updates of its software protection have been done to maximize user’s data safekeeping.
Source: Reuters