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17000 Mac botnet discovered

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Hackers have developed a backdoor entry called "Mac.BackDoor.iWorm" that gains access to Macs and uses Reddit to connect the hacked computer with a command server. Once the computer is infected, the iWorm uses Reddit's search function to hunt down posts made by the hackers. These posts (on a Minecraft subreddit) provide server addresses, and the software uses the Reddit posts as a guide to connect to the botnet.

Dr Web are the Researchers who discovered it.

http://news.drweb.com/show/?i=5976&lng=en&c=14

News articles

http://gizmodo.com/hackers-are-using-reddit-to-connect-17-000-macs-to-a-bo-1642062140

https://finance.yahoo.com/news/hackers-found-flaw-macs-using-121808264.html

 

2 years ago same company discovered a piece of malware infecting Macs and Apple tried to make a domain registrar shut down the company's domain.

http://www.forbes.com/sites/andygreenberg/2012/04/09/apple-snubs-firm-who-discovered-mac-botnet-tries-to-cut-off-its-server-monitoring-infections/

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That's really smart

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That's really smart

It really is. 

 

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Don't take /g/ memes seriously.

They're not botnets, they're spyware. And even then in the practical, not technical/legal sense.

 

'A botnet is a collection of Internet-connected programs communicating with other similar programs in order to perform tasks'

 

Sounds like those programs to me. They phone home to communicate data to the software publisher/developer/company/etc.

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It's not clear yet how they infect the Mac in the first place [...]

 

How is this news if you don't know how it got installed ? If it's users taping their admin password, nothing can be done even on the most secure OS. 

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'A botnet is a collection of Internet-connected programs communicating with other similar programs in order to perform tasks'

 

Sounds like those programs to me. They phone home to communicate data to the software publisher/developer/company/etc.

Then you have the actual definition as per Oxford: a network of private computers infected with malicious software and controlled as a group without the owners' knowledge

 

http://www.oxforddictionaries.com/definition/english/botnet

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Then you have the actual definition as per Oxford: a network of private computers infected with malicious software and controlled as a group without the owners' knowledge

 

http://www.oxforddictionaries.com/definition/english/botnet

 

Language isn't objective, and it definitely doesn't mean that words can only have one solid meaning.

 

Botnets are very commonly used to describe what I above mentioned: 'a collection of Internet-connected programs communicating with other similar programs in order to perform tasks'. Stop arguing semantics, the point is those programs are no better or worse.

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'A botnet is a collection of Internet-connected programs communicating with other similar programs in order to perform tasks'

 

Sounds like those programs to me. They phone home to communicate data to the software publisher/developer/company/etc.

Well there are multiple definitions of a botnet. The most common one includes something about the users having to not be aware or willing to perform the tasks. So having your computer run an IRC bot does not make your computer a zombie, but if your computer is sending spam emails in the background without you knowing then it is.

I guess data harvesting could be classified as a botnet, but Steam is very upfront with that. Not sure about the other programs you listed.

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Now I'm not fan of Microsoft, Apple or Google, but I would prefer any of them to Russian mafia, as -I suspect- would the vast majority of people.

 

Russian Mafia, or American Government.

 

Pick your poison.

 

EDIT: Or even, you know, use neither.

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Better now?

Also, I remember reading that a lot of Apple execs just got rid of a lot of stock, so perhaps it isn't a good time to buy in.

 

You do understand how the rules work with executives cashing out stock, right? 

Execs have to make their intentions known well in advance before they sell, the dates are known to those in management. They are then allowed to cash in and out as they please, since they gave notice. That has nothing to do with the health of the company. 

If you're gonna engage in conjecture, at least try and be factual and look up some facts. 

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Execs have to make their intentions known well in advance before they sell, the dates are known to those in management. They are then allowed to cash in and out as they please, since they gave notice.

Which part of that means that execs won't sell stock when they expect its value to start going down in the future?

It only means they made that judgment based on long term trends, not sudden unexpected setbacks.

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