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Attacks on Macs

June 7, 2011 By Anne Leave a Comment

There have been “a number of reports over the past few weeks about an anti-virus scam that goes by a number of aliases, including MacDefender, MacProtector and MacSecurity,” reports Larry Magid, my ConnectSafely.org co-director, at the San Jose Mercury News. He says he’s been religious about protecting his Windows computers against malware but only just tried out some anti-virus software on his Mac laptop – because Apple “finally posted a Web page to warn Mac users about MacDefender,” which Apple says redirects users from legitimate Web sites to fake ones that say their Macs are infected with a virus. The problem is, it’s the claimer (MacProtector, et al) that does the infecting. How can you tell? The latest version of this scam software doesn’t require users to enter their passwords the way Mac users usually have to do to install new software. Larry cites computer security firm Intego as saying the malware messages look professional and redirects users to porn sites, giving them more reason to think their Mac’s infected and they need “MacDefender.” So don’t be tricked. Don’t install anything that doesn’t require a password and, if someone at your house has been fooled already and you see an occasional message saying your Mac is infected, ignore it and get the malware uninstalled from your computer. [While we’re on the subject, here’s Computer World on Apple’s new OS X Lion operating system that users will be able to download next month (if they already have Snow Leopard installed).]

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Filed Under: Security Tagged With: computer security, Macs, malware

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IMPORTANT RESOURCES

Our (DIGITAL) PARENTING BASICS: Safety + Social
NAMLE, the National Association for Media Literacy Education
CASEL.org & the 5 core social-emotional competencies of SEL
Center for Democracy & Technology
Center for Innovative Public Health Research
Childnet International
Committee for Children
Congressional Internet Caucus Academy
ConnectSafely.org
Control Shift: a pivotal book for Internet safety
Crimes Against Children Research Center
Crisis Textline
Cyber Civil Rights Initiative's Revenge Porn Crisis Line
Cyberwise.org
danah boyd's blog and book about networked youth
Disconnected, Carrie James's book on digital ethics
FOSI.org's Good Digital Parenting
The research of Global Kids Online
The Good Project at Harvard's School of Education
If you watch nothing else: "Parenting in a Digital Age" TED Talk by Prof. Sonia Livingstone
The International Bullying Prevention Association
Let Grow Foundation
Making Caring Common
Raising Digital Natives, author Devorah Heitner's site
Renee Hobbs at the Media Education Lab
MediaSmarts.ca
The New Media Literacies
Report of the Aspen Task Force on Learning & the Internet and our guide to Creating Trusted Learning Environments
The Ruler Approach to social-emotional learning (Yale Center for Emotional Intelligence)
Sources of Strength
"Young & Online: Perspectives on life in a digital age" from young people in 26 countries (via UNICEF)
"Youth Safety on a Living Internet": 2010 report of the Online Safety & Technology Working Group (and my post about it)

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