The Shlayer malware isn’t new. Two years ago when researchers discovered it infecting Mac computers they noted that the malware’s technique of disguising itself as an Adobe Flash Player update could hardly be considered novel either.
On my iPad, I'm on TD but it keeps redirecting me to ufye (dot) koofukrev (dot) site and saying Adobe Flash Player is out of date. This happens to me too. Freshly unboxed Mac Mini - Catalina 10.15.3 Set all System Preferences & Safari Preferences, then went to TD first, before going anywhere else. Another distribution method is intrusive ads including, for example, fake flash player update websites. Once clicked, some advertisements offer installation of additional plug-ins, whilst others simply run scripts designed to download and install adware without users' consent. Download free Adobe Flash Player software for your Windows, Mac OS, and Unix-based devices to enjoy stunning audio/video playback, and exciting gameplay. Important Reminder: Flash Player’s end of life is December 31st, 2020. May 17, 2020 The virus manifests itself through random redirects to a site that instantly displays a popup alert saying: 'Adobe Flash Player' is out of date To continue using “Adobe Flash Player”, download an updated version. The wording in the spoofed notifications may be different, though. I keep getting asked to download adobe flash player. Not only that but as soon as this problem started to occur I began to get redirected to other sites. ' adobe flash player from adobe system inc.
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And yet, according to a recently-published report from Russian security outfit Kaspersky, there are now almost 32,000 unique variants of Shlayer and it accounts for a staggering 30% of all malware detected by the company’s Mac anti-virus products.
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Perhaps even more stunning is another of the company’s statistics – that not only was Shlayer the most commonly-encountered Mac malware of 2019, but that it was seen at least once by 10% of users of Kaspersky’s Mac anti-virus products.
Can “one in ten macOS users” really have been attacked by Shlayer as Kaspersky claims? It feels remarkable if true. Turbulence fd cinema 4d r20 download mac.
That means it’s possible that Kaspersky’s data is skewed because it is collated from Mac users who have chosen to run security software (and thus might consider themselves more at risk) or it might even mean that Kaspersky is actually *under-reporting* the true level of Shlayer activity because there is no insight on the computers which aren’t running an anti-virus.
Often Shlayer has been distributed via websites claiming to offer a live stream of a soccer match, software cracks, or posing as pirated episodes of popular TV shows. Unsuspecting users might have been directed to the sites by search engines, malicious links posted in YouTube video descriptions, or even the footnotes of Wikipedia articles.
Interestingly, Kaspersky’s research team says that the boobytrapped Wikipedia footnotes were not placed there by the malware distributors themselves:
“These links were not added by the cybercriminals themselves: we found that all those malicious domains had recently expired, and, judging by the WHOIS data, they now belong to a single individual. On the websites, the newly minted owner posted a malicious script that redirects users to Shlayer download landing pages. There are already over 700 such domains in total.”
Eventually, through whatever route, an unsuspecting user arrives at a webpage and sees the tempting content they wish to access. They click, and are greeted with a notification that they should install an update to Adobe Flash Player.
Of course, you should only ever download your Adobe Flash updates (if you wish to run it at all) from Adobe itself.
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And although many Mac users have little need for Adobe Flash in this day and age, clearly Kaspersky’s research shows that there are many who will go ahead and install the malicious update, and compromise their Mac computer.
It’s a crude technique, but it works. And if the criminals are continuing to make money by infecting Apple Mac computers in this fashion, whatever makes you think that they’ll come up with a more original social engineering trick?
I advise all Mac users to run an up-to-date anti-virus program, and exercise caution about the software they install onto their computers. Kindle version 2.5.8. Download video from youtube on mac os x.
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