Posted on 05/18/2011 10:32:28 AM PDT by Loud Mime
Over the weekend, I got an e-mail from an AppleCare support rep, who was responding to my recent reports of Mac malware being found in the wild. At least one prominent voice in the Mac community dismisses these reports as “crying wolf.” The view from inside an Apple call center says it’s for real:
I can tell you for a fact, many, many people are falling for this attack. Our call volume here at AppleCare is 4-5x higher than normal and [the overwhelming majority] of our calls are about this Mac Defender and its aliases. Many frustrated Mac users think their Mac is impervious to viruses and think this is a real warning from Apple. I really wish I could say not many people will fall for this, but in this last week, we have had nothing but Mac Defender and similar calls.
I contacted this person and arranged an interview. I’ve edited our conversation to remove any details that might identify this individual or the call center location, but otherwise this is a verbatim transcript.
EB: Until this latest round of fake AV software started, what was a typical week like for you?
AC: There’s usually about 600 or so of us spread around 14 centers for CPU support. Before this started happening, we had 7-12 minutes between calls generally. Now we’re lucky to have any time between calls.
We started getting a trickle of calls a couple weeks ago. However, this last week over 50% of our calls have been about it. In two days last week I personally took 60 calls that referred to Mac Defender.
EB: Do you have a support database that you share for cases like this?
AC: What do you mean? As in articles for new issues we’re running into?
EB: Yes, there must have been a point where you noticed that a lot of people were dealing with this Mac Defender thing and that it wasn’t just your calls.
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.
EB: Wow.
AC: That’s about what i said when I read it. 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.
More at the source.
Thanx for the heads up!
Have not run into this issue yet with my new MacBook Pro. Thanks very much for your advance warning of a potential problem.
Where was I dishonest?
So true. My son told me about a virus that came in when a lowely employee brought in a floppy from home to work on during break.
The resulting chaos cost tens of thousands in damage
In this case, it's malware makers, as the user has to PROACTIVELY give these programs elevated access to the system in order to be installed. Unlike the PC world, your mac is not going to get infected with a virus if you hook it up to the internet out of the box*
* prior to downloading the patches since the OS was installed and the time of purchase.
Oh! The huge manatee!
We’re about to purchase a MacBook Pro. We’ve never owned a Mac. How would we go about installing the Sophos?
Have you owned your MacBookPro for very long? Do you like? Love it? Andy Pros/Cons/suggestion?
You don't need any kind of anti-virus software. It's a waste of money and system resources.
You can very comfortably assume complete immunity from malware provided you only give your system password to programs you know and want to install.
No, you aren't technically immune to malware with a Mac, but all these windows geeks are telling you to get what amounts to “lightning bolt insurance” to justify they've been flying cheap-a$$ windows kites in the rain.
For the longest time Apple computers have been relatively safe from this kind of thing simply because the return on investment for a hacker developing an Apple virus/Trojan/malware was just not as good as one for Windows. Now there’s so many Macs that they’re worth attacking and they’re also worth attacking because so many Apple users are utterly oblivious to security issues.
Add to this the fact that Apple users tend to be liberal, urban snobs who almost uniformly sneer at PC users as troglodytes and I find myself with precious little sympathy for them.
As I mentioned to Waryone a moment ago, we will be purchasing our first Mac (MacBook Pro) today (hopefully. was supposed to purchase it days ago, but ran into a snag).
Should we install Sophos? Do you use your Mac for business? I’m trying to compile a list of Freepers who may be able to help if we run into any problems. We live between Nomansland and Nowhere. No such thing as One To One here.
Thanks for your help.
I believe all browsers give you the option of whether or not to automatically open downloaded files....simply choose to not automatically open them. However, I believe most browsers set the default to automatically open the files, so you need to check your “Options” and verify.
Our farmhouse door is typically unlocked and I assure you that if anyone breaks in here we’ll be feeding them to the hogs before their corpse gets cold.
"Was that the sound of a shotgun pump being racked that I just heard?"
“Add to this the fact that Apple users tend to be liberal, urban snobs who almost uniformly sneer at PC users as troglodytes and I find myself with precious little sympathy for them.”
I’ve been sitting on the sidelines for years as I watch this continuous grudge match between Mac and pc users/owners.
You’ve made a sweeping generalization concerning Mac owners, but I must tell you that I’ve witnessed what seems to be jealous envy from pc users.
I have also witnessed cult like devotion by Mac users, but the animosity seems to be equally share by both sides.
The tricky thing about Windows viruses as opposed with Mac viruses, is that with Windows, many times to get rid of viruses, you have to dink with the Registry. That’s why Anti-Malware programs are a necessity with Windows, you don’t want amateurs going in there are trying to play with the registry.
Seems the virus removal on a Mac is much more straightforward, where really there is not much need for the anti-virus software, it’s not worth using up all that CPU.
LOL!
That pump-action sound is something that’ll strike fear into a deaf man. No other sound like it. :^)
There’s a very good reason mac users are passionate about the platform.
Every PC is an electronic roulette wheel. You never know when it is going to crap out on you, nor how long it is going to take to get it back up and running.
Macs don’t work that way. They just work.
Don’t listen to any jackass that tries to tell you we gladly pay three times what they’ll pay for a laptop because it’s a status symbol. We gladly pay three times what they’ll pay, because time is money and we can confidently sit down to do an hours work an hour before the deadline...e v e r y t i m e.
No, I just said something that’s fundamentally true. When I lived in California people my age had Apples as some sort of status symbol and they were mostly liberal and they were almost always snobs who bought Apples for the principal reason that they were fashionable among liberal snobs. Now I live in Wyoming and I don’t know anyone here, so far, who owns an Apple. For that matter I think the closest Apple store is in Salt Lake.
Part of the turn off for me with an Apple is that it just seems that it’s liberals and leftists who buy them and that alone is enough to sour me on them.
Something people don’t talk about is the fact that Macs retain their value much more than PCs, you could easily sell a 2-3 year old MacBook for $500-600. So when you want to upgrade, sell the current one, and use the proceeds towards the purchase of a new one.
“I have also witnessed cult like devotion by Mac users, but the animosity seems to be equally share by both sides.”
It happens with motorcycle brands too. Vic20 anyone?
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.