#Ransomware on apple install#
#Ransomware on apple update#
#Ransomware on apple software#

REvil’s leader also teased a “big attack coming…linked to a very large video game developer” in last fall’s published interview.Īn international-headline-grabbing caper against Apple would be just the kind of thing that might attract other would-be ransomware attackers to partner up with REvil, whose proof of concept is all over the news. REvil handles ransom negotiations, payment, delivery of the encryptor and develops the software, the REvil leader explained last fall. The affiliate partners must take care of the initial infection, wiping out backups and exfiltrating the files. REvil affiliates get 70 to 80 percent of the ransom. REvil operates a ransomware-as-a-service business, which offers material support to other “affiliates” who handle the technical details of the attack. With a May 1 deadline for Apple to pay $50 million, it looks like the stakes have been ramped up substantially. Last fall the person claiming to be the group’s leader said it expected to make $100 million by the end of 2020. Recorded Future said someone claiming to be the group’s spokesperson hinted last Sunday on a forum the group was prepping for its “loudest attack ever.”Īnd REvil is definitely growing.

REvil clearly understood the significance of the leak’s timing. “They’re notoriously known for leaking data if their demands aren’t met.” REvil’s Maximum Pressure on Apple “The REvil ransomware gang doesn’t make false promises,” observed Ivan Pittaluga, CTO of enterprise security firm ArcServe, in an email to Threatpost. Indeed, REvil is not known for messing around if the group says it has documents from victims and it will post them, it generally will, given previous experience. Now REvil said it wants $50 million by May 1 from Apple to give the files back. These events, formerly led by Apple founder Steve Jobs, have become integral to the brand, and are presented with big hype and fanfare from Cupertino. From our side, a lot of time has been devoted to solving this problem.” “In order not to wait for the upcoming Apple presentations, today we, the REvil group, will provide data on the upcoming releases of the company so beloved by many,” according to REvil’s blog post, the report said. The company took the wraps off a host of new products at the event. In an added stroke of criminal ingenuity to ratchet up the pressure to pay, REvil decided to start leaking the ripped off files just hours before Apple’s Spring Loaded event on Tuesday, including schematics for some new iMacs it debuted there. Once Quanta refused to pay to get the files back, REvil started leaking a set of blueprints for some products to turn up the pressure, adding more would be leaked every day the ransom went unpaid. REvil was able to breach the Quanta servers, steal the files and hold them for ransom, according to a statement posted on its dark web site-dubbed the “Happy Blog”-in which it said Quanta refused to pay the original ransom for the attack, according to a published report. Click above to hone your defense intelligence! More details at Morphisec's security blog.Download “The Evolution of Ransomware” to gain valuable insights on emerging trends amidst rapidly growing attack volumes.

#Ransomware on apple install#

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#Ransomware on apple update#

Morphisec researchers also added that Apple developers 'haven't fixed all the vulnerabilities reported by us, only the one that was abused by the attackers.' In any case, if you do use iTunes, make sure to update it to the very latest version. Following this discovery, we identified the attack surface and the motivation of the attacker to choose this process for evasion.

#Ransomware on apple software#

Many of the computers uninstalled iTunes years ago while the Apple Software Update component remains silently, un-updated, and still working in the background. We were surprised by the results of an investigation that showed Apple Software Update is installed on a large number of computers across different enterprises. Because of this, machines are left with the updater task installed and working. In most cases, people are not aware that they need to uninstall the Apple Software Update component separately when uninstalling iTunes. Morphisec warns that even if you don't currently run iTunes but did so in the past, you could still be at risk, hinting that this could be the reason why attackers chose this process for evasion.