What is the 'Automator' App on Mac?

Mac users may notice a strange application named Automator, that is running in the background silently. There is a good reason why you may not recognize this particular application or remember ever installing it on your Mac. Indeed, Automator is a rather niche application that comes pre-installed with your Mac. Its function is to help automate certain simple and repetitive tasks. For example, users may take advantage of the functionality provided by the application to rename batches of files or set auto-crop conditions for images.

Unfortunately, exactly like other legitimate applications and processes, it also can become impersonated by malware threats. Cybercriminals often attempt to hide or blend their harmful creations on the system by assuming the identity of legitimate applications. That is why any suspicious activities exhibited by Automator on your system should be examined carefully. Some tell-tale signs of unauthorized and intrusive actions include unusually high resource usage, frequent crashes or freezes, being stored in a place different from the default, etc.

The consequences of allowing malware or PUPs to be present on the system can range from merely annoying to extremely serious. PUPs are mostly tasked with causing unwanted redirects to dubious websites or delivering questionable advertisements to the system. Malware threats, on the other hand, could scan the system and exfiltrate sensitive data to their operators, hijack the device's resources to mine for a particular cryptocurrency, encrypt data as part of a ransomware scheme and more.