A malicious type of Mac malware has been hitting on hundreds of users and remained unnoticed for years.
Law enforcement agents are now investigating on FruitFly malware that uses phone's camera to spy on users and to have a close watch on what is happening on the front screen.
Patrick Wardle, an ex-NSA analyst who is now associated with cybersecurity firm Synack as a researcher, says that there are around 400 infections, but there's likely much more as he had limited resource to watch on. "I likely only saw a limited percentage of the total number of victims," Wardle said.
This Mac malware was first discovered and patched by Apple back in January 2017.
However, Wardle has discovered a different variant. It reportedly gives the attacker unimaginable access to victim's computer like webcam photos, records their keystrokes, screenshots of their screen, and more.
"This shows that there are people who are sick in the head who are attacking everyday Mac users for insidious goals," he told Ars Technica. "A lot of Mac users are overconfident in the security of their Mac. [The discovery] just goes to reiterate to everyday users that there are perhaps people out there trying to hack their computers."
"I don't know it if it's just some bored person or someone with perverse goals ... If some bored teenager is spying on me, that would still be very emotionally traumatic. If it's turning on the webcam, that's for perverse reasons," he added.
He believes that surveillance is the main goal for the creator of the Fruitfly malware.
"This didn’t look like cyber crime type behavior, there were no ads, no keyloggers, or ransomware," he said. "Its features had looked like they were actions that would support interactivity: it had the ability to alert the attacker when users were active on the computer, it could simulate mouse clicks and keyboard events."
Law enforcement agents are now investigating on FruitFly malware that uses phone's camera to spy on users and to have a close watch on what is happening on the front screen.
Patrick Wardle, an ex-NSA analyst who is now associated with cybersecurity firm Synack as a researcher, says that there are around 400 infections, but there's likely much more as he had limited resource to watch on. "I likely only saw a limited percentage of the total number of victims," Wardle said.
This Mac malware was first discovered and patched by Apple back in January 2017.
However, Wardle has discovered a different variant. It reportedly gives the attacker unimaginable access to victim's computer like webcam photos, records their keystrokes, screenshots of their screen, and more.
"This shows that there are people who are sick in the head who are attacking everyday Mac users for insidious goals," he told Ars Technica. "A lot of Mac users are overconfident in the security of their Mac. [The discovery] just goes to reiterate to everyday users that there are perhaps people out there trying to hack their computers."
"I don't know it if it's just some bored person or someone with perverse goals ... If some bored teenager is spying on me, that would still be very emotionally traumatic. If it's turning on the webcam, that's for perverse reasons," he added.
He believes that surveillance is the main goal for the creator of the Fruitfly malware.
"This didn’t look like cyber crime type behavior, there were no ads, no keyloggers, or ransomware," he said. "Its features had looked like they were actions that would support interactivity: it had the ability to alert the attacker when users were active on the computer, it could simulate mouse clicks and keyboard events."