Over the years many Mac users have believed their computers to be immune to malware. In the past I've suggested they search the internet as there have been instances. To be fair, until recently Macs represented only around 6% of the PC market, but according to my observations this has now close to doubled. This doubling now increases the size of the market for malware writers and thus the Mac becomes more of a target and Mac users needs to accept the change in situation.
I was very surprised to read the following article about the line Apple support workers had to maintain. I hope it isn't true.
Apple has finally held its hands up and admitted that the MacDefender scareware package might be a problem, abandoning the line that support workers must on no account suggest to users that their machine might be infected with malware
This type of malware has been around for years with Windows computers and I have seen at least one person fall victim to the malware. I don't know why anyone would provide their credit card details in such a situation, but I can understand how people can be easily tricked.
A number of articles have starting appearing (Updated rogue AV installs on Macs without password) with regards to the issue and it seems the Apple forums started discussing the issue very early in May.
I read some time ago Apple incorporated anti-virus software into the operating system but it wasn't well publicised. To do so would indicate malware was becoming an issue. Informed users are generally better users in my opinion.
A while ago an email promoting a $50 iTunes gift card circulated as malware. Normally Mac users represent around 8% of the traffic to this blog. With the gift card there was a substantial spike of over 6,000 visitors in a very short period and the logs showed 20-30% of those were Mac users. That was a real concern is it highlighted that Mac users may be more susceptible to being tricked because in the past they weren't as good a target for malware writers. That has all changed. Mac users need to be kept informed. With the increased popularity of Apple products comes the increased problem of malware. It is unfortunate, but we need to accept it.
Kelvin Eldridge
http://www.onlineconnections.com.au/
I was very surprised to read the following article about the line Apple support workers had to maintain. I hope it isn't true.
Apple has finally held its hands up and admitted that the MacDefender scareware package might be a problem, abandoning the line that support workers must on no account suggest to users that their machine might be infected with malware
This type of malware has been around for years with Windows computers and I have seen at least one person fall victim to the malware. I don't know why anyone would provide their credit card details in such a situation, but I can understand how people can be easily tricked.
A number of articles have starting appearing (Updated rogue AV installs on Macs without password) with regards to the issue and it seems the Apple forums started discussing the issue very early in May.
I read some time ago Apple incorporated anti-virus software into the operating system but it wasn't well publicised. To do so would indicate malware was becoming an issue. Informed users are generally better users in my opinion.
A while ago an email promoting a $50 iTunes gift card circulated as malware. Normally Mac users represent around 8% of the traffic to this blog. With the gift card there was a substantial spike of over 6,000 visitors in a very short period and the logs showed 20-30% of those were Mac users. That was a real concern is it highlighted that Mac users may be more susceptible to being tricked because in the past they weren't as good a target for malware writers. That has all changed. Mac users need to be kept informed. With the increased popularity of Apple products comes the increased problem of malware. It is unfortunate, but we need to accept it.
Kelvin Eldridge
http://www.onlineconnections.com.au/
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