Mysterious Malware Infects 30,000 Mac Computers From Unknown Source

According to cybersecurity firm Red Canary, 30k-40k Mac computers have been infected with mysterious malware. This unusual strain of malware is called the Silver Sparrow strain and has infected Mac computers across more than 150 countries. Red Canary has yet to figure out a purpose with this malware but has determined that it is infecting computers with Apple’s new M1 chip. In this article, we will examine the potential dangers this virus could cause to these computers, how to see if you have the malware, and how to avoid obtaining this malware.

Is the Silver Sparrow Mysterious Malware Dangerous to My Computer?

The Red Canary researchers are still undetermined as to what the malware’s goal is or why it is downloaded onto people’s devices. They have said that its behaviors are abnormal compared to the usual adware that attacks Apple devices. The malware “calls a command-and-control center every hour from an infected machine to check for further instructions,” according to the BBC. The malware also has a self-destruct feature that has not been used yet and can hide itself from someone’s device.

Even though the Silver Sparrow mysterious malware hasn’t done anything yet, it still has the power to be potentially harmful at any given moment. No one knows what this malware is capable of or why it is downloaded onto people’s devices, but experts are telling those who have it on their devices to be careful.

Researchers have also stated that this should be a wake-up call for users who use Apple products that believe their devices aren’t as susceptible to malware as Microsoft devices. Both types of devices are susceptible to malware and should be checked on periodically to make sure they are safe.

How To Tell if the Silver Sparrow Mysterious Malware Has Infected My Computer

• Download a trusted antivirus or antimalware program that will detect and remove malware from your device.
• If you’re a more advanced developer, you can look at these three options taken directly from Red Canary’s blog post:
  • Look for a process that appears to be PlistBuddy executing in conjunction with a command-line containing the following: LaunchAgents and RunAtLoad and true. This analytic helps us find multiple macOS malware families establishing LaunchAgent persistence.
  • Look for a process that appears to be sqlite3 executing in conjunction with a
    the command line that contains: LSQuarantine. This analytic helps us find multiple macOS malware families manipulating or searching metadata for downloaded files.
  • Look for a process that appears to be curl executed in conjunction with a command line that contains: s3.amazonaws.com. This analytic helps us find multiple macOS malware families using S3 buckets for distribution.
• Notarize your favorite Apps with Apple to allow the Apple Team to examine them and sign off that they don’t have malware.
  • Also, if you are an app developer, make sure to submit your app to Gatekeeper so that they can verify that your app is malware-free.

How to Avoid the Silver Sparrow Mysterious Malware

• Make sure to download a trusted antivirus or antimalware program that will detect and remove malware from your device.
  • Make sure you do your research and can trust the program you are downloading onto your device.
• Only go onto a trusted website when performing a Google search, whether it’s a website that is familiar or a website that’s high-rated.
• Don’t click on links received via a phishing email or text message, since these links could lead to malicious websites.
• Don’t click on any pop-up ads that you might see while surfing the web since these links could also contain malware.
• Perform checks on your device often using your antivirus or antimalware software that will scan your device for malware.

Social Catfish is Here to Help You!

At Social Catfish, we want to help you verify the identities of those who might seem suspicious to you. If you have their name, email address, phone number, social media username, or image, you can reverse search and see who the suspected person was that you’ve been in contact with when dealing with the silver sparrow mysterious malware.