The Great MAC Defender Swindle

As Apple Mac takes an increasingly bigger bite out of Microsoft's market share, hackers are beginning to take notice. Mac attacks are on the rise and one new piece of malware uses SEO tactics to gain entry and infect your hard drive.

The program is a fake anti-spyware program called MAC Defender, which utilizes SEO tricks to rank at the top of search results. If a user clicks on a MAC Defender search result they are taken to a website that displays a fake screen with a fake virus scan, which then tells the visitor their computer is infected.

The solution? Why download MAC Defender of course!

Once you have downloaded the MAC Defender malware you are given a number of prompts and asked for your password. If you go ahead and enter it MAC Defender installs itself.

It's when you actually install MAC Defender that it really turns into a nasty piece of work. The malware operates by informing the user their computer is infected and then opening links to pornography every few minutes. In order to nullify the virus users are advised to buy an antivirus protection service from MAC Defender. If they take the bait they are then instructed to enter their credit card information.

After you have given over your credit card the warnings stop. But there is no antivirus service and you have just given your credit card information to hackers.

Well. . . color me impressed I suppose.

Not to spread virus doom, which of course I love to do, but Mac users should start taking some precautions. PCs have been running interference between us and the hackers for more than a decade now.

Only the times have changed and we're gonna have to start martialing our own defense soon. Mac themselve are preparing to release an update that will find and remove the MAC Defender virus.

But we know from experience with these things, it's only a matter of time before the next one comes along.