TechMiso

According to the Mac Security Blog by Intego it appears there is new spyware out in the wild targeting the Mac OS X platform:

Intego has discovered a spyware application that is installed by a number of freely distributed Mac applications and screen savers found on a variety of websites. This spyware, OSX/OpinionSpy, performs a number of malicious actions, from scanning files to recording user activity, as well as sending information about this activity to remote servers and opening a backdoor on infected Macs.

OSX/OpinionSpy is installed by a number of applications and screen savers that are distributed on sites such as MacUpdate, VersionTracker and Softpedia. The spyware itself is not contained in these applications, but is downloaded during the installation process. This shows the need for an up-to-date anti-malware program with a real-time scanner that can detect this malware when it is downloaded by the original application’s installer.

Intego also offers a sparse update with additional information about the spyware.

This should not really come as a surprise. With all the attention Mac OS X is getting these days it was only a matter of time before spyware “vendors” started targeting Mac users. I still stand by my claim that running an anti-virus application on a Mac is unnecessary at this juncture even though that is unheard of on a Windows box.