Macworld Do Macs get viruses? Do Macs need antivirus software? The answers to these questions aren’t as simple as they might seem. In this article, we look at the dangers faced by Mac users, and the pros and cons of using Mac antivirus software. Historically, the Mac has been considered safe and secure for a number of reasons that we will go into below, but in recent years the consensus has fluctuated. In its 2020 State of Malware report, Malwarebytes said it saw “a significant rise in the overall prevalence of Mac threats in 2019, with an increase of over 400 percent from 2018.” The following year, the company found that overall malware detected on macOS decreased by 38 percent…

Macworld Do Macs get viruses? Do Macs need antivirus software? The answers to these questions aren’t as simple as they might seem. In this article, we look at the dangers faced by Mac users, and the pros and cons of using Mac antivirus software. Historically, the Mac has been considered safe and secure for a number of reasons that we will go into below, but in recent years the consensus has fluctuated. In its 2020 State of Malware report, Malwarebytes said it saw “a significant rise in the overall prevalence of Mac threats in 2019, with an increase of over 400 percent from 2018.” The following year, the company found that overall malware detected on macOS decreased by 38 percent…

Macworld Digital security firm Kaspersky has posted information about a recent cyberattack that targeted the iPhones of Kaspersky employees, which were infected with spyware that is part of a campaign the company dubbed, “Operation Triangulation.” Hackers were able to infect the iPhones using what Kaspersky called an “invisible iMessage with a malicious attachment” that can be activated without user interaction. Once installed, Triangulation was able to gather sensitive information (audio recordings, photos, geolocation, and more) and transmit that data to remote servers. All of this can occur without the user being able to notice. In a separate, more technical post, Kaspersky points out that “the most recent version of the devices successfully targeted is iOS 15.7.” An Apple representative told…

Russia’s Federal Security Service (FSB) claimed on Thursday it had uncovered a U.S. National Security Agency (NSA) plot using previously unknown malware to access vulnerabilities in Apple iPhones. Lockdown Mode is the first major capability of its kind designed to offer an extreme, optional protection for the very small number of users who face grave, targeted threats to their digital security. Guy Faulconbridge for Reuters: The FSB, the main successor to the Soviet-era KGB, said several thousand Apple phones had been infected, including those of domestic Russian subscribers. The Russian spy agency also said telephones belonging to foreign diplomats based in Russia and the former Soviet Union, including those from Israel, Syria, China and NATO members, had been targeted. “The…

Macworld Microsoft has released details on a security vulnerability that the company discovered in macOS Ventura. The vulnerability, which Microsoft dubbed “Migraine,” involved Apple’s Migration Assistant and allows a hacker to get by macOS’s System Integrity Protection and get access to the data on the Mac. In a blog post, Microsoft provides the technical details on how Migraine works. Apple’s SIP provides security for macOS to stop unauthorized root access, but the Migration Assistant app has a privilege that allows it to have unrestricted root access. Microsoft created a modified version of Migration Assistant that takes advantage of this exploit, but the modified app had to be used while the Mac’s Setup Assistant is in debug mode. Microsoft’s researchers were…

Macworld At a GlanceExpert's Rating ProsIncludes virus protection, secure browsing, ID monitoring, a VPN, and a password vault in one packageEffective and flexible VPNConsMissing key capabilities such as a quick virus scan and a scheduled scanCertain options unavailable in the Mac version vs the Windows versionNo notification for malware infectionsNo way to view malicious or quarantined filesCharges a hefty annual subscriptionOur VerdictF-Secure Total for Mac includes several useful features but lacks certain key options, especially in the virus scanning. For a product that costs $59.99/£34.99 a year for one device (even with a discount), the Mac version feels lackluster, particularly when compared with its Windows counterpart. Some security products that offer both Windows and macOS versions seem to devote equal…