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Transmission Infected with KeRanger Ransomware

It was discovered this weekend that popular BitTorrent client Transmission was infected with what is believed to be the first fully functional ransomware on OS X. Palo Alto Networks discovered the infection and report that attackers infected two installers of version 2.90 of Transmission’s Mac app with the ransomware, dubbed KeRanger, on March 4. The ransomware works by encrypting all files in the “/Users” and “/Volumes” directories and then demands payment of 1 Bitcoin (~US$400) from victims in order to decrypt and retrieve their files.

It is not yet known how the Transmission installers were infected. Palo Alto Networks promptly disclosed the ransomware to the Transmission Project and Apple, and both have taken swift action. Transmission has since been updated to 2.9.1 (removing the ransomware from the installer) and 2.9.2 (automatically removing KeRanger if it had been installed on a user’s system). Whilst Apple has revoked the certificate used to install KeRanger, updated Gatekeeper to block the malicious installer, and updated its XProtect (Apple’s built-in anti-malware software) signatures.

How to Protect Yourself

The following is excerpted from Palo Alto Networks’ report on KeRanger. We recommend you read their full report if you would like further, and more detailed, information.

Users who have directly downloaded Transmission installer from official website after 11:00am PST, March 4, 2016 and before 7:00pm PST, March 5, 2016, may be been infected by KeRanger. If the Transmission installer was downloaded earlier or downloaded from any third party websites, we also suggest users perform the following security checks. Users of older versions of Transmission do not appear to be affected as of now.

[via MacRumors, Palo Alto Networks]

Pixelmator as a Screenshot Editor→

Gabe Weatherhead at Macdrifter highlights something that puzzled me when I wrote a roundup of screenshot apps last December:

While there’s a wealth of options on the Mac for image annotation, there are very few complete options on iOS. PointOut is wonderful for creating magnifier callouts but not much else. Pinpoint has really easy redaction, annotation and arrows but nothing more. Omnigraffle has everything plus a great deal of control but it’s too many taps to do anything basic.

The problem is compounded by the fact that many screenshot apps on iOS are unable to detect a screenshot once it has been edited by another app. As a result, there is often no good way to pass a screenshot from one app to another to apply multiple edits.

Gabe’s solution is clever. He uses Pixelmator, one of the most powerful image editors available on iOS, to create call-outs, redact sections of a screenshot, and draw arrows. I use Screenshot++ and Pinpoint regularly, but it’s good to have Pixelmator as an option for more complicated combinations of edits. Check out Gabe’s post to see how it’s done.

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Connected: I’m Like a Butterfly→

This week, Myke and Federico console Stephen over the Mac mini before discussing Siri and the next version of iOS.

This week on Connected, a discussion on Siri for iPhone (and maybe Mac in the future), plus some first thoughts on what iOS 10 could bring. You can listen here.

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App Store Shifts to Updating ‘Best New Apps’ More Often→

Jeff Benjamin, writing at 9to5Mac:

Schiller is now in charge of all App Stores, taking over responsibilities from Eddy Cue, which most prominently include the iOS App Store and the Mac App Store.

It’s been less than three months since the move occurred, but we’re already beginning to see a change in the way the App Store operates. For example, we’re now seeing more regular updates of the Best New Apps section at the top of the App Store’s Featured page. In a tweet today, Schiller acknowledged the changes and indicated that more changes were on the way.

I’ve been noticing the same, particularly on the front page, which makes sense. The App Store used to be refreshed every Thursday with Editor’s Choice and featured apps. Frequent updates to the ‘Best New Apps’ section could help in promoting apps multiple times throughout the week.

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Amazon Expands Echo Line→

Amazon announced two additions to the Echo family this morning – the portable Tap and the Chromecast-like Dot. Dan Moren has a breakdown of the announcement and details.

I’m relatively new to the Amazon Echo (I shared the story of how and why I bought one on Connected), but, like many others, I’m liking it a lot. In my three weeks with the Echo, the ability to play music, set timers, and turn my lights and espresso maker on and off from anywhere around the kitchen without having to wait for Siri is starting to become second nature.

(In theory, this is exactly what Siri on the Apple Watch should do. Realistically, though, the Watch is simply too slow and HomeKit commands fail too often.)

Amazon is doing good work with expanding the Echo’s list of supported third-party services (unlike Apple). I’m intrigued by the Dot.

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Apple Launches @AppleSupport Account on Twitter→

As first reported by MacRumors, Apple has today launched @AppleSupport, a support account on Twitter:

Apple today created an official Twitter support account to provide customers with tips, tricks, and tutorials about the company’s product and services. One of the account’s first tweets provides users with step-by-step instructions on how to turn lists into checklists in the stock Notes app on iPhone.

Apple’s presence on social media is slowly but surely expanding. This is now the second support account that Apple runs on Twitter, following last October’s launch of @AppleMusicHelp which provides help and tips relating to Apple Music.

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Life and Death in the App Store→

Casey Newton has a must-read story on the struggles of Pixite (makers of Pigment, among other apps) and the modern app economy:

For a time, Pixite was a shining example of the businesses made possible by the app economy. Like thousands of other developers, Pixite’s founders took what had been a side project and turned it into a full-fledged career. But the company’s recent financial problems illustrate a series of powerful shifts in the industry toward consolidation and corporatization.

For all but a few developers, the App Store itself now resembles a lottery: for every breakout hit like Candy Crush, hundreds or even thousands of apps languish in obscurity. Certain segments of the app economy remain vibrant — ludicrously profitable, even. Apps for massive social networks, on-demand services like Uber, and subscription businesses like Netflix and Spotify remain in high demand. Then there’s gaming: Last year, 85 percent of all app revenues went to games, according to App Annie. Supercell, the top-grossing developer of Clash of Clans, reported revenue of $1.7 billion in 2014. (It spent $440 million on marketing.)

The folks at Pixite have made some mistakes along the way, but the general shift on the App Store is undeniable.

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Drafts 4.6 Has Nice Refinements and a Few Treats for Power Users

Agile Tortoise’s development of Drafts never seems to slow down. Today, version 4.6 was released with a long list of new features and refinements. Here are my favorites:

  • Trash Can: Drafts now saves 30 days of deleted drafts in a trash can from which they can be restored, which makes writing in Drafts safer than ever.
  • Interface Enhancements: The Drafts editor has been refined to improve the readability of your drafts, especially on the iPad.
  • Automatic Dark Mode: Drafts can now monitor the ambient light in a room, and turn its dark mode on and off according to a brightness threshold that you select.
  • Box Support: Last year the MacStories team started using Box as part of our document collaboration workflow, which makes Box support especially welcome. Much like Drafts’ Dropbox and Google Drive support, you can now create files in Box, and append and prepend to existing Box files.
  • Today Widget: Drafts 4.6 debuts a redesigned Today Widget with a streamlined look.
  • Icons: Drafts has added many action icons, which I like because it makes it even easier to identify my Drafts actions.

There are also some treats in Drafts 4.6 for power users too:

  • Open in Drafts: Instead of opening Safari, you can set a URL action to open URLs in Safari View Controller, which keeps you inside Drafts. The Agile Tortoise blog includes a couple good examples of this that search Google and DuckDuckGo.
  • ‘replaceRange’ URL Scheme Action: When used with an x-success callback parameter in a URL scheme action, ‘replaceRange’ can replace selected text in a draft with the results of a URL scheme call to another app. This is powerful stuff, and means you can do things like send selected text to Agile Tortoise’s dictionary app, Terminology, to look up a synonym, select it, and return it to Drafts, replacing the originally selected text. A similar action works with my app, Blink, where the selected text kicks off a search. After you select an item from the results, Blink sends an affiliate link back to Drafts, replacing the selected text with the link. I have more detail, and a demonstration of the Blink action on squibner.com. Both of these actions work on any iOS device, but the first time I saw them in action with both apps running in Split View on an iPad Pro, I was blown away. Writers will love these actions.
  • Include Action: You can now incorporate one action into another by reference, which makes building actions more modular.

With version 4.6, Drafts continues its steady pace of innovation by continuing to redefine what a text editor can be, which is why it has been one of my go-to text editors for many years now.

Drafts 4.6 is a free update for existing customers, and $9.99 for new users.

Slack’s 2016 Roadmap→

Josh Constine, reporting on Slack’s plans to roll out voice and video chat this year:

The imminent release of voice and video chat could make offices noisier, but it will certainly make Slack more of a comprehensive communication solution rather than a tool plugged into a suite of other products. That might convince companies Slack is worth paying for.

Given Slack’s focus on making work searchable, it’s easy to imagine that years down the line, Slack could use voice recognition to create transcripts of your voice or video meetings.

Here’s what I wrote when Slack acquired Screenhero in January 2015:

We use Slack at Relay, and, like many others, I like its integration with other services and apps. I always wondered if Slack would ever take on Skype, and I’m curious to see if what they’re building could be a possible solution for podcasters who are forced to use Skype today.

More than a year later, we use Slack intensively every day, and Skype is only being used to hold audio conversations with multiple people. If Slack’s take on voice chat supports channels and group calls and is sleek and stable enough, I think podcasters may want to keep an eye on it.

(Would Ecamm make a Slack Call Recorder, though? Would Slack consider automatically archiving those voice chats?)

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