Yesterday Intego shook up the Mac world by announcing that spyware had been identified and that they had the solution for it.
Much ado about nothing?
After doing more research, and finding a very usable Macintosh Malware Catalogue, I found the following:
OpinionSpy aka Premier Opinion
OpinionSpy, also called Premier Opinion, was announced as spyware by Intego on June 1, 2010. According to Intego, it is distributed with a number of screensavers (all sold by one company, 7art) and one video converter. The full list can be seen here. However, it’s poor spyware indeed that warns you that it is installing, tells you it’s going to collect your personal information, and then requires you to agree to install it. The makers of the AV software ClamXav evidently decided it wasn’t spyware and decided not to include it in their definitions database.
Threat level is rated Very low.
For more information regarding Macintosh Viruses, see Thomas’ Corner Macintosh Virus page. It provides a clear and concise guide to Mac malware. Basically, we Mac users are still in the era of relative safety.
This is not the first time that Intego has trumpeted loudly an announcement of Mac malware, inciting a sales flurry, that turned out to be for the most part a non-issue.
I will always report any malware information as soon as I see it, and will follow up with more details as soon as they come out. I certainly don’t want to cause any “panic” but want to make sure if there is a real threat, we all know about it ASAP!
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