“ The Apple doesn’t fall too far from the… ”

The JIG is up. They finally did it Joe. The day we feared the most. Apple Macs have got new malware and I blame you Android lot. The bad vibes have been oozing for a while. Although, the notion that MacBooks couldn’t get infected was always a myth because nothing is ever made perfect. Honourable shoutout to Apple for trying though.

Before we get into the malware that has just been discovered in the new MacBooks, I’m going to need you all to update your iPhones to the latest iOS version (14.4). Why?BECAUSE *insert clap emoji* I *insert clap emoji* SAID *insert clap emoji* SO. But in all seriousness, that new update contains a patch to fix a vulnerability that cybercriminals are actively exploiting. These are zero-day* vulnerabilities that reside in Safari (the Apple default browser) which leads to arbitrary code execution**. If you’re using an iPhone that does not support iOS 14.4, then I would suggest getting your money up. Sorry, that was a typo…I mean, I would suggest using another browser and making it your default e.g. Google Chrome. 

Whew!! Back to the main topic of discussion. Recently Apple released the new MacBook featuring the state-of-the-art M1 chip, transitioning from the previous Intel iCore chips (i5, i7 & i9). What does this all mean? Not to worry, I’ll do a blog to help you choose the best laptop for your needs. The new M1 chip is the most high-performance chip that Apple has produced, enabling it to offer the best performance for power-intensive tasks such as gaming and video editing. The M1 chip allows users to run tasks without compromising battery power. Quite a few researchers warned that this transition would make it easy for criminal enterprises to create malware that could get into the system.

Sadly, the researchers proved right as hackers snuck sleeper malware into nearly 30,000 Macs. They’re calling this the ‘Silver Sparrow’. Here’s the weird thing, there isn’t a payload*** associated with this vulnerability, so we don’t know what damage it can cause, one can only imagine. Through investigations from the Red Canary, there were two types of malware discovered in the new MacBooks. 

Apple however has revoked the certificates for this malware, so it should stop you from accidentally installing it yourself. To break it down, a certificate is a small data file that meshes a cryptographic key to an organisation, so when you see a padlock in the URL bar that means the site has its certificate to let you know that any data you’ve entered is secure. If a certificate has run out, or has been compromised then the certificate should be revoked or renewed.

You’re probably thinking, what does this have to do with me? Well, if you do own one of the new MacBooks, this isn’t the first piece of malware to have been discovered on the new chip. Security is very important and organisations are facing new and improved threats. Apple has faced a few threats this year and slowly these cybercriminals are finding gaps within that. So how do I protect myself? I would suggest having malware-removal software on your device just in case you have been compromised. 

I’m just looking out for y’all.

‘Tips with T’

– Keep devices protected with malware removal software

Love & Guidance

TT