14 DAY TRIAL // Speculative reports claiming Apple has 'admitted' to increased malware threats on its Mac OS are doing the rounds, spreading unnecessary panic concerning the company’s stance on dealing with malware threats.
ZDNet’s Ed Bott has had a chat with an AppleCare call center representative who reportedly said, “We started getting a trickle of calls a couple weeks ago. However, this last week over 50 percent of our calls have been about it. In two days last week I personally took 60 calls that referred to Mac Defender."
Oh, ok. So, it's the MAC Defender thing, not Mac malware in general.
A fake antivirus program, MAC Defender targets Mac users via SEO poisoning attacks. Once installed, it displays messages intended to trick users into paying for the program.
However, since users must agree to install the software and provide a password, Mac security firm Intego labeled the threat as "low."
Its solutions, including the ones that are free, can detect it with the latest definitions installed.
Oh, and did we mention that security companies live off the people's fear that they might get infected? What do you think the Intego security advisory was for?
Whenever the term ‘malware’ is used in the same sentence with ‘Mac OS,’ the less computer savvy members of the Apple community become alarmed, hence the calls this AppleCare rep has been receiving. Or at least, this is a plausible theory.
GMA News picked up on the story to further cast a bad shadow over Apple’s practices, quoting the AppleCare rep as saying ‘'We're not supposed to help customers.” The quote is, of course, taken out of context.
Actually, what the Apple staffer said was “we’re not supposed to help customers remove malware from their computer.”
And here’s why: “The reason for the rule, they say, is that even though Mac Defender is easy to remove, we can’t set the expectation to customers that we will be able to remove all malware in the future. That’s what antivirus is for," the representative said.
"Last call i got before the weekend was a mother screaming at her kids to get out of the room because she didn’t want them seeing the images. So, panicking, yes, I’d say that would be the situation usually," he added, answering a question about the customers being panic-stricken.
Just so we're clear on one thing, while Apple advertises Mac OS X as being more secure than Windows, the company has long recommended antivirus software for more peace of mind.
