As much as Mac OS users like to believe that their platform is impervious to malware, it’s really not. The number of attacks, asadmittedby Apple, have been increasing. However, Apple customer service representatives have been told not to help remove spyware and malware.
Those who create malware that targets Macs employ a method calledsocial engineering, where users are tricked into clicking on and installing Trojan horse programs. The most recent is theMacDefender, which pretends to be a Mac anti-virus program but once installed reportedly launches pornographic websites.
The report adds that the software also asks users to purchase an upgrade by entering their card details, which is presumed to be a faux upgrade that could lead to fraudulent credit card charges.
Ed Bott ofZDNetspoke to an anonymous AppleCare representative and was able to find out that they are instructed not to help users remove malware to manage expectations for future problems.
AC:We have a team of people who go though all case notes and find new issues that are popping up a lot and send notices to all of AppleCare. Our notice for Mac Defender is that we’re not supposed to help customers remove malware from their computer.
The reason for the rule, they say, is that even though MacDefender 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.
Luckily, disabling and removing the bogus MacDefender application is easy. If you have been infected and want to make sure it no longer resides on your system, simply follow the steps in our previousblog post.
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Given this, it is also probable that Apple is pushing the Mac App Store as the onlysafe placeto get software.
Story byFrancis Tan
Francis Tan is the Asia editor of TNW, who is based in the Philippines. He is particularly interested in Asian Internet startups, social me(show all)Francis Tanis the Asia editor of TNW, who is based in the Philippines. He is particularly interested in Asian Internet startups, social media and e-commerce. Get in touch with him via Twitter@francistanor Emailfrancis@thenextweb.com.
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