RANTS: The Day Has Finally Arrived

People have been saying for some time that Macs are safe and are not susceptible to malware infections. As a result, anti-malware software is not needed. The market more or less followed this trend. But, this has changed. Malware is not something that only PC users have to deal with anymore. I've been asked many times in the past whether anti-virus or other anti-malware was needed. I've always said that it's better to be proactive about protection than to wait until there's a problem. By then, the computer would've already been infected.

Here's a BBC news article about Macs becoming the right size target for attackers to pay attention:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-17623422

Here's the F-Secure link about how to figure out if your Mac might be infected:

http://www.f-secure.com/v-descs/trojan-downloader_osx_flashback_i.shtml

Hope this helps someone.

RANTS: HTC Android Phone Comes with Malware Pre-Installed

Straight-from-the-factory, Android mobile device from HTC comes with a bot client, a worm, and a password stealing tool. How do we protect ourselves when we can't even trust a brand new device to be clean? I've always been an advocate of wiping anything and everything before using it. It takes a bit more time to setup, but you'll be sure that you'll have a clean device from the beginning. Here's the full story:

http://threatpost.com/en_us/blogs/htc-phones-pre-installed-mariposa-bot-client-030910

RANTS: Hackers Targeting Credit Unions

http://threatpost.com/blogs/attackers-sending-malware-infected-cds-credit-unions-127

It's interesting that these people are targeting Credit Unions for their attacks. It's a pretty safe bet that the larger institutions will be much less vulnerable to this type of attack. How can we make Credit Unions safer? Would the person who found the CDs question the validity and source of the content? Or would he/she mindlessly try to run the CD because that's just what people do? At the end of the day, if everyone were educated on potential vulnerabilities work and we took conscious steps to protect ourselves and those things that are entrusted to us, then the hackers would have a much harder accomplishing their goals.