This just in: two security companies who make their money selling anti-malware software and/or consultancy services for the Mac platform say that two new Trojans are in the OS X wild. Luckily, though, you’re only really at risk if you’re not thinking too hard about what you’re doing on your machine.
The two Trojans are actually subtle variations on one another. The first is called to our attention by SecureMac, who advise Mac users to be on the lookout for trojan.osx.boonana.a. Disguised as a link on social networking sites that asks you to identify yourself in a video, the trojan — once executed — downloads and runs a Java applet that installs a myriad of apps that send your data to external servers and hijack your email, thus propagating the Trojan.
A similar trojan called Koobface.A is being reported by Intego, who note that its primary method of propagation is Twitter and Facebook.
Needless to say, don’t allow either of these trojans to run a Java applet on your system — or better yet, don’t click the link — and you’ll be safe. A
[via TUAW]
John Brownlee is a writer for Fast Company, and a contributing writer here at CoM. He has also written for Wired, Playboy, Boing Boing, Popular Mechanics, VentureBeat, and Gizmodo. He lives in Boston with his wife and two parakeets. You can follow him here on Twitter.
