Published: June 15 2009, 12:27 AM
by Methusela Cebrian Ferrer

  “A picture’s worth a thousand words” – Chinese proverb

                                     Figure 01 – Visualizing OS X threat internet distribution

For the past couple of days, I have noticed that there has been an aggressive push of Mac trojans specifically OSX/Jahlav variants.

As shown in Figure 01, the prevalence of OS X threats is primarily distributed over the internet - mostly found from Google search. I have captured few examples for visualization to show how it is perpetrated by organized gangs. The green area is denoted as legitimate source where red lines links to affiliate websites and thereafter re-directed to malicious servers.

Another note worthy event is Apple’s Worldwide Developers Conference in San Francisco (WWDC09 Jun 08-12) - so it got me wondering if these attackers are trying to capture attention or if it's just business as usual.

Although, what’s clear to me now is that everyday there are Mac users around the world asking for help about this threat. Yes, it requires user intervention to install but unfortunately the level of sophistication involved to lure users is definitely effective. 

Mac users are advised to download and install applications from trusted source.

Stay safe! 

Additional Reading:

http://ithreats.net/2009/06/10/updated-maccinema/ 

http://community.ca.com/blogs/securityadvisor/archive/2009/03/23/latest-mac-threat-maccinema.aspx

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