Don't attack people!
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Apple Security Ping!
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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.
You just ping me any time you want.
That used to sour me on Macs too until I heard that Rush not only owns a Mac but extolls its use.
I then came to look at the issue more objectively, and realized the majority of people who own them are not liberals or conservative, but are simply people who want a product that will be reliable. From radio personality, to doctor to scientist to executive, they are people who need a computer to work reliably everytime. And Macs do. You don’t get the blue screens of death before important meetings and/or computer crashes right after a critical data storage. You just don’t. This is because, I’m certain, the software is simply written better.
The hardware is another issue, to be fair. Especially the hard drives, and especially the ones in the laptops. I had to replace one (under warranty) in my iMac, and a friend of mine had to replace his 3 times in his laptop. This is all mainly due to design aethstetics over functionality. For example, when I realized the problem with my iMac was that the default settings for the internal fans was much lower than what they should be to actually keep the system cool, I simply downloaded a free program called smuFan control and turned them up manually. They set them low so you don’t hear the fan run like on PC’s. But again this tends to cook the hardware.
It’s a tradeoff, as everything in life. However since, software speaking, the Mac is about as reliable as you can get, I choose to go with that, endure an occasional (2-5 year interval between) hard drive failures, and simply back up my data regularly.
It’s either that, or constantly worry about what websites I visit, or if my anti virus is up to date, or if my firewall is stealthing all ports.
According to the articles attached.. crome downloaded it without asking ..where fire fox did ask,, and I know Safari always asks
There are things I lie about crome and things that concern me ...
I thought Swordmaker started this thread? Never mind.
>I had a recent virus infect my Desktop PC. I was using windows defender and the germ went right past that ‘protection’
Somebody told me that if I had hit the ‘reset’ button immediately, the computer would not have been infected.
Does anybody know if that is true?<
True. In a “previous” life, I worked for a Los Angeles-based anti-virus company, as the malware technician. The simple trick is that AS it pops up and shows the amount of time the ‘av’ starts to scan the system, SHUT down IMMEDIATELY. Open up in safe mode afterwards, run MWB, TDSSKILLER but don’t open up your AV because malwares, trojans and viruses now as smarter than ever and they target those quickly.
If you want on or off the Mac Ping List, Freepmail me.
Nah, it's just an effective scare ware ad campaign with a downloadable application Trojan! There is no virus. Just one blackmail ware. Turn on pop-up blocker and don't believe the fake video ad about a "scan" finding viruses on the Mac that needs to be cleaned off with MacDefender.
Do you know anything about this.
I went back to my Firefox 3.6.12 and still seening some issues of sporadic locking.
Any ideas? Thanks.
Yes, but it’s not quite like on a PC. I got viruses on my PC and had no idea when I got them. I had MacDefender pop up on my Mac and it was obvious right away and easy to avoid installing it. Totally different, even for a dummy like me. Of course, it helps that I had seen something here on FR (thank you Swordmaker!) about it already so I was well aware of what it was.
The "Security by Obscurity" canard has been shot down so many times it's ridiculous. Malware writers have written viruses for target machines with vulnerable populations of only ~12,000. That number was worth the effort... But you claim that 55,000,000 totally bare-naked sitting duck Macs are not an economically desirable target for ANY malware writer to go after? That is completely unbelievable!
Oh geeze.
California....nuff said.
How snobbish of you.
This just in from ZDNEt: Every 14th (PC) download, says Microsoft, is malware.
Most PC viruses are pretty obvious, especially the current breed of instant killers that Mac Defender is modeled after, the virus warning trojan instant nuke has become very popular with the script-kiddies.
Oh yeah, I got one of those, where when you click to close the pop up it installs it, but I also got another one that must have been resident for a bit before I knew it was there. It turned off my updates and did some damage. I’m pretty unsaavy, so I can’t explain, but it destroyed my computer. Fortunately it was an older computer and I replaced it with a Mac. I was able to retrieve my data before the thing gave up the ghost.
Not too long ago virus writers were more subtle, they’d drop in things that did little or nothing or worked slowly. Not anymore, now they like to toast your computer in 30 seconds or less. If I was conspiracy minded I’d say it was the AV companies doing it, but I’m not so I won’t.
I’ve heard that said. I don’t understand it enough to have a clue. I only know that when both my laptop and desktop got them in the same week I said, ENOUGH! I don’t want to have to be a geek just to do what I want to do on a computer.
You don’t need to be a geek to avoid malware. Just run a good AV (and most of the best are free) and don’t click yes on stuff you don’t know where it comes from. Anybody can do it, but people tend to be very agreeable with their computers, they think it actually knows stuff, so when it “asks” to do something they say yes.
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