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Mac security threat on some screensavers?

Jonathan Riggall

Jonathan Riggall

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Security company Intego today warned that a malicious piece of spyware for Macs has been packaged with some screensavers, mainly from the company 7art Screensavers. The spyware, an application called OSX/Opinionspy is downloaded during the installation of these screensavers, that are listed here.

This is a piece of marketing spyware, that secretly collects and sends data about your online activity, meaning entering your credit card details with it installed could be very dangerous. The Guardian have posted a useful guide to removing the spyware, so head over if you’re worried.

However, we tested two of the listed screensavers, ‘Emerald Clock ScreenSaver‘, and ‘Silver Snow ScreenSaver‘, and found no evidence of any spyware, and nor did Intego’s software detect any. So currently we cannot confirm if this story is true or not. We will update when we’ve figured out what’s going on!

This story does highlight that you should always be careful about what you install on your computer, and don’t blindly agree to everything an installation asks.

Update:  The company 7Art appear to have changed their downloads, and also Intego have removed their blog posts listing dangerous applications. Whether this was a genuine threat or just a piece of marketing is difficult to clear up, but it does seem like 7Art downloads are safe.

[Image via the Intego blog]

Jonathan Riggall

Jonathan Riggall

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