Yes, Mac ransomware exists

On Macs “up until recently, Ransomware was not an issue,” Yevgeniy Kapishon writes for Apple Gazette. “Well, it is now a very real threat to Mac users.”
“Although it is not as popular as it is within the Windows-based community… and there are not quite as many Ransomware variants that can infect Mac machines, they are out there,” Kapishon writes. “This means that if Mac Ransomware is already available, expect the threat to grow.”
“The two known variants are Patcher and KeRanger. Both of these Ransomware variants work in a similar way by encrypting the files on a computer and then later demanding a ransom be paid in order to have those files decrypted,” Kapishon writes. “KeRanger has infected about 7,000 users by tricking people into downloading an infected BitTorrent client… Patcher is the newest one and to date, it has affected hundreds of Mac users. This one takes advantage of people, well, people who don’t like to pay for software. A download of an Office Crack/Patcher seemed like a sure thing, but instead of activating your Office, it encrypts files and…wait for it… demands a ransom.”
Read more in the full article here.
MacDailyNews Take: As Kapishon states, the moral of the story here is simple: “Pay for your software and never download cracked software.”
Do not download/install software from untrusted sites.
SEE ALSO:
What to do when ransomware strikes your Mac – October 24, 2017
Mac ransomware author is giving away malicious code to script kiddies – June 12, 2017
New macOS ransomware written in Apple’s Swift spotted in the wild – February 22, 2017