Hmmm …
You know, I’m glad I’ve got a Mac, I am …
No, really … !
Mostly on the ease-of-use front, I think OS X can’t be far beaten.
Actually … ?
It usually can’t be beaten on the malware front, either.
Usually …
And usually, when there is malware about … ?
It usually hits the headlines, much like MAC Defender has.
»»•««
Just so you know, the reason I know it’s hit the headlines … ?
Is that I have Mail.app, my email client, set up as my default RSS reader.
One of those feeds … ?
Is the BBC’s Technology news site.
Which is where I noticed this …
Like I say, headlines …
»»•««
To summarise … ?
Briefly, it seems many of my fellow Mac owners have been conned into downloading a piece of software called MACDefender: or, occasionally, Mac Security.
It’s scareware, so you know.
In other words, it’s a piece of software that pretends to scan your Mac, and claims there’s tons of malicious software on it.
And that, in order to get rid of it, you have to pay MACDefenders producers for it to finish the job.
Instead … ?
It just redirects you to tons on porn sites … AFTER you’ve coughed up.
Oh …
And hogs a lot of your systems resources in the process.
»»•««
There’s a solution, though.
Bit of a monotonous one, but one that will get the malware off an infected Mac.
You can read it, here.
But at the bottom of it … ?
Is an old issue with Safari, and something that came up with the
.dmg bug, a few years ago.Basically, Safari automatically opens files it thinks are safe.
Indeed, altering that is something I know I’ve done for years, whenever I’ve got a new version of OS X or Safari.
At the end of the procedure, the guide I’ve found for dealing with MAC Defender Safari’s Preference pane — pictured above — you need to make sure that you’ve unticked the ‘Open “Safe” files after downloading’ button.
Personally … ?
I’m thinking Apple’s a touch remiss about not just doing a little bit of altering.
Just to make sure that’s a closed hole in one of their few cross platform programmes.
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