Apple’s Mac Computers Target of Latest Virus Ruse

For years Apple fans have praised the security of Mac OS. And while it is still considered inherently more secure than Windows, cracks in it’s armor are beginning to show. Mac Defender (a rogue antivirus program) has been making the rounds for several weeks now, and it doesn’t appear that it will be ending anytime soon.

Rogue antivirus programs disguise themselves as legitimate security products, but are anything but. Designed to scam you out of your money by scaring you into believing you have numerous virus infections, once they manage to get your credit card information its game over.

While Golden Years Computers has been seeing these type of infections in Windows for quite some time, the fact they are now appearing on Mac computers proves how effective it is to trick the user rather than the machine. So how can you prevent viruses from infecting your Mac in the first place? Cnet.com offers some excellent advice.

If an installer appears mysteriously, block it from installing. Quit out of odd warnings and pop ups, particularly if the “back” or “cancel” option is not highlighted, by clicking the red dot in the upper corner of the pop-up window. Move any suspicious looking files that appear related to MacDefender from your downloads folder into trash. In Safari under “preferences” uncheck the “open safe files after downloading” box.

As with the Windows variants, never click the  ’cancel’ or ‘quit’  buttons on the actual windows, as the virus writers could have easily made every button actually mean ‘OK’. Always use the red dot to close out suspicious windows.

If you happen to become infected, Golden Years Computer Services offers complete virus removal solutions to the entire Oklahoma City metro area.