As reported on ZDNet, a confidential internal Apple document tells the company’s front-line support people how to handle customers who call about malware infections:
Don’t confirm or deny that an infection exists, and whatever you do, don’t try to remove it.
For so many years, Mac users have grown accustomed to not having to deal with viruses, malware, spyware, and so on. It was just a “fact of life on a Mac.” However, some Mac users as of late have had to deal with the Mac Defender virus. Since having a warning pop up in front of your face while surfing the net has not been something Mac users have seen, many people think the warning is actually coming from Apple and will click on the link. While this is a new phenomenon, it has nothing to do with the security of Mac OS X. Macs are still not susceptible to viruses. The MacDefender program does absolutely nothing but ask you for payment and will open adult sites if you don’t pay up. While this is definitely bad, there’s not much Mac OS X could have done to prevent it from happening.
AppleCare does not provide support for removal of the malware, but MacNet will. We’ll help you resolve this issue if you happened to click on the link and installed the program; which is going by names such as– Mac Defender, Apple Security, and a few less used name variants. So far the only difference between them are the names. MacDefender is not a worm, not a virus, and not a true Torjan horse; although it falls under the general term “malware” — as in, it’s malicious in some way.
If an installation starts and you don’t know what program it is or why it’s there, quit the program; Don’t click on it to see what it’s all about. Most importantly, if it’s asking you for your Mac’s Administrator password and you don’t know why, don’t enter it. If you’re not sure whether or not your Mac has been infected with ANY sort of malware or spyware, contact us to schedule an appointment and we’ll check it for you.
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