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These kinds of supply-chain attacks are especially insidious because they violate every basic mantra of computer security for consumers, says Cisco's Craig Williams, potentially leaving those who stick to known, trusted sources of software just as vulnerable as those who click and install more promiscuously.

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And just last week, a similar-but less serious-problem hit Python developers, when the Slovakian government warned that a Python code repository known as Python Package Index, or PyPI, had been loaded with malicious code. Those tools injected malicious code known as XcodeGhost into 39 iOS apps, many of which passed Apple's App Store review, resulting in the largest-ever outbreak of iOS malware. In late 2015, hackers distributed a fake version of the Apple developer tool Xcode on sites frequented by Chinese developers. In some recent cases, hackers have moved yet another link up the chain, attacking not just software companies instead of consumers, but the development tools used by those companies' programmers. It punishes good behavior.' -Craig Williams, Cisco Talos 'People trust companies, and when they're compromised like this it really breaks that trust. 'Given the opportunities for reach and data collection it gives to the attackers, most likely it will be reproduced again and again with some other widely used software component.' (Kaspersky itself is dealing with its own software trust problem: The Department of Homeland Security has banned its use in US government agencies, and retail giant Best Buy has pulled its software from shelves, due to suspicions that it too could be abused by Kaspersky's suspected associates in the Russian government.) “ShadowPad is an example of how dangerous and wide-scale a successful supply-chain attack can be,' Kaspersky analyst Igor Soumenkov wrote at the time. One month later, researchers at Russian security firm Kaspersky discovered another supply chain attack they called 'Shadowpad': Hackers had smuggled a backdoor capable of downloading malware into hundreds of banks, energy, and drug companies via corrupted software distributed by the South Korea-based firm Netsarang, which sells enterprise and network management tools. Three times in the last three months, hackers have exploited the digital supply chain to plant tainted code that hides in software companies' own systems of installation and updates, hijacking those trusted channels to stealthily spread their malicious code.

It's also an increasingly common incident.

That attack betrayed basic consumer trust in CCleaner-developer Avast, and software firms more broadly, by lacing a legitimate program with malware-one distributed by a security company, no less.

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On Monday, Cisco's Talos security research division revealed that hackers sabotaged the ultra-popular, free computer-cleanup tool CCleaner for at least the last month, inserting a backdoor into updates to the application that landed in millions of personal computers. But lately, devious hackers have been targeting their attacks further up the software supply chain, sneaking malware into downloads from even trusted vendors, long before you ever click to install. Only install applications from a trusted source or from a trusted app store. The warnings consumers hear from information security pros tend to focus on trust: Don't click web links or attachments from an untrusted sender.