MacKeeper Security Breach

I haven’t looked at MacKeeper myself, but it doesn’t have a very good reputation: the company that makes it, Kromtech, is often accused in public forums of using ‘dubious malware alert pop-ups and aggressive marketing’. Or, as Brian Krebs puts it, ‘a much-maligned software utility many consider to be little more than scareware‘.

Krebs was actually talking about a security breach that apparently exposed 13 million customer records. Kromtech has issued an advisory here thanking researcher Chris Vickery for identifying the issue and playing down its impact.

John Gruber’s terse commentary on the Krebs story pulls no punches, describing the software as a ‘scam’. Graham Cluley doesn’t sound too impressed, either: MacKeeper carelessly leaves 13 million Mac users exposed.

David Harley