billynicol wrote:
I see your point, but I am inclined to believe the reports around what the malware is being used for
I tend to agree, although Intego has been quite convinced from their analysis that privacy information is being collected:
2/23/12
Flashback Mac Trojan Horse Infection Increasing with New Variant
> What this malware does
>
> This malware patches web browsers and network applications essentially to
> search for user names and passwords. It looks for a number of domains –
> websites such as Google, Yahoo!, CNN; bank websites; PayPal; and many
> others. Presumably, the people behind this malware are looking for both user
> names and passwords that they can immediately exploit – such as for a bank
> website – as well as others that may be reused on different sites. (Hint:
> don’t use the same password for all websites!)
> ...
> This malware also has an automatic update module that checks a number of
> websites for new versions.
There are numerous examples here in the forum of users being redirected to ad sites and it's clear that has been going on for some time.
On the other hand, I have not heard from a single infected user in this forum that they were hacked or suffered any type of identity theft since being infected. The only report I've even heard of was during Shawn King's Interview with Rich Mogull discussing the Flashback Trojan during which Rich said that a user reported fraudulent credit card activity shortly after he was infected. I don't think we can conclude much from one such occurance. So, unless this thing can be tied to what's going on with the iTunes store, it's either very small scale, Intego is wrong or that's the next shoe to drop.
