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| Silver Sparrow ... malware that infects Mac computers |
According to researchers at Red Canary Security, nearly 30,000 Mac computers worldwide have been infected with a mysterious malware called Silver Sparrow.
There is a common stereotype that Mac computers are largely immune to malware, which is a bug.
Tony Lambert, analyst at Red Canary, stated that the malware does not display the expected behavior of the normal adware that typically targets macOS.
The researchers said the target of the malware is unclear: Silver Sparrow has a self-destruct mechanism that can remove all traces of it and does not appear to be in use, and it is not clear why this feature is triggered. .
It's worth noting that the code in the Silver Sparrow was originally implemented via the Apple M1 chip, which was released in November. This makes it the second known malware program.
The researcher wrote: While we did not notice that Silver Sparrow contains other harmful ingredients, M1 chip compatibility, global coverage, relatively high infection rate, and operational readiness all indicate that the Silver Sparrow poses a serious threat.
According to data on the Malwarebytes website, Silver Sparrow infected Macs in 153 countries on February 17th. In the United States, the United Kingdom, Canada, France, and Germany, the virus has a higher focus on preventing ransomware attacks.
The post on Red Canary goes into this in more detail, including the discovery of several versions of Intel chips as well as the M1 chip, which is odd given that the device the chip is running on is still very new.
Security researcher Patrick Wardle published an article earlier this month about the first malware targeting Apple's new chip.
Researchers warn that Apple's shift from Intel to proprietary products could make it easier for hackers to introduce malware.