Apple’s Mac OS targeted by ‘ransomware’

The first known ransomware attack on Apple Mac computers, which came to light over the weekend, had clocked 6,000 downloads before the threat was contained, according to a developer whose product was compromised by the malicious software.

Macs were infected with the ''KeRanger'' ransomware through a tainted copy of Transmission, a popular program for transferring data through the BitTorrent peer-to-peer file sharing network.

Ransomware, a malicious software, restricts access to a computer system in some way and demands a ransom from the user for removing the restriction.

According to John Clay, a representative for the open-source Transmission project, KeRanger which locked data on Macs so users could not  access it, was  downloaded about 6,500 times before Apple and developers were able to thwart the threat.

According to commentators that was small as compared with the number of ransomware attacks on computers running Microsoft Windows operating system.

In 2014, cyber security firm Symantec observed around 8.8 million attacks in 2014 alone.

According to cyber security experts, they expected to see more attacks on Macs as the KeRanger hackers and other groups looked for new ways to infect Mac computers.

''It's a small number but these things always start small and ramp up huge,'' said FidelisCybersecurity threat systems manager John Bambenek, Reuters reported. ''There's a lot of Mac users out there and a lot of money to be made.''

Historically, machines running Apple's OSX, which had a much smaller share of the market, had been considered mostly safe from viruses and other digital attacks.

According to Liviu Arsene, an e-threat analyst with internet security software provider Bitdefender, that era may be ending.

''I think Apple users will become more targeted in the future because up until now there were very few successful malware attempts,'' he said, The Wall Street Journal reported. Now, though, ''there's blood in the water and sharks will come.''

The incentive too was high and the piece of ransomware tied to Transmission, dubbed ''KeRanger,'' demanded its victims pay one bitcoin currently valued $400 to retrieve their files.