Hackers Get 43 Cents for Every Hijacked Mac

By John Johnson,  Newser Staff
Posted Sep 26, 2009 1:44 PM CDT
Hackers Get 43 Cents for Every Hijacked Mac
A customer looks at a MacBook Pro.   (Getty Images)

Mac users, beware: the Russians are after you. A notorious network of spammers in the country pays hackers 43 cents for every Mac they infect with fake software, an investigator says. At a security conference in Switzerland, the researcher laid out a specific scheme to get Mac users to install malware in the guise of a video player. The Russian spammers still mostly go after Windows, but the Mac threat is a disturbing new trend, notes ComputerWorld.

"The growing evidence of financially-motivated criminals looking at Apple Macs as well as Windows as a market for their activities, is not good news," blogs Graham Cluley at Sophos. "Especially as so many Mac users currently have no anti-malware protection in place at all." (More hackers stories.)

Get the news faster.
Tap to install our app.
X
Install the Newser News app
in two easy steps:
1. Tap in your navigation bar.
2. Tap to Add to Home Screen.

X