The personal data of 13 million users exposed MacKeeper – Le Figaro

A computer security researcher has discovered a database with the names and passwords of users of MacKeeper, a software of dubious reputation.

For an application that promises safety of its users, this is a shame. MacKeeper, security software and maintenance to the fairly bad reputation, let the data of 13 million users on a public Web server. It was therefore possible to access personal data and passwords of all users.

This is a computer security researcher Chris Vickery, who made the discovery and alerted members of Reddit. He also gave an interview to Brian Krebs, star journalist of cybersecurity. “After a few moments of boredom during which I looked for database servers,” the computer scientist fell on the 21 gigabytes of personal data. The passwords were indeed encrypted through cryptography, but the algorithm used to do was outdated, making it all the easier to decipher passwords.

The company has repaired the Error “a few hours after the discovery,” said Kromtech, the company that designs MacKeeper. She told Chris Vickery that the database had been set to “fresh air” after a bad configuration that date last week. Information which, according to the researcher in computer security, is not 100% accurate.

Kromtech MacKeeper and are far from having a good reputation. For users of Apple computers, the name is known because it appears to very many unwanted ads that play on fear, but also on fake sites designed to rave reviews of the product. This software is supposed to improve the capacity of machines running MacOS, and protect them. But according to many experts, MacKeeper is, at best, a scam. Sometimes advertisements fail to install a free version by abusing the naivety of Internet users, after which the software will inform the user that a paid version will better protect their computers face many threats. MacKeeper is within the scope of a class action for “false advertising” in the United States.

On the computer specialized forums, many users wondering how to uninstall this software. Many sellers of computer equipment, as Peter Cohen Site iMore, indicate that many unstable Mac repair they have MacKeeper installed. Moreover, this software is not the easiest to uninstall. The Securitemac.com French website shows how completely remove MacKeeper his Apple computer.