Wednesday, May 18, 2011

Mac FakeAVs continue to bother Mac users

 FakeAV's have been bothering Windows users for a while now, and they continue to get worse. By worse and mean harder and harder to remove. I remember a while ago when I saw my first fakeav. If I remember correctly it was Winfixer. It was a very simple FakeAV program compared to today's and was easy to prevent by just closing your open browser. Today fakeavs are installed through exploits, drive by downloaders, trojan downloaders, and all types of different ways. Today they even lock you out of your Windows, disable important services, and even encrypt your hard drive to prevent you from getting in without paying.

 Now FakeAVs are starting to pick up on Mac machines. How bad you may ask? Take a look at this interview with an AppleCare support talk about how calls have picked up with people asking how to fix the Mac FakeAV variants. In fact I was just looking through the Malware removal section of GeeksToGo the other day and I saw someone posting on there asking how to get rid of the FakeAV they had on the Mac. Normally you never see any Mac users in any of the malware removal forums.

 With all the reports with one of the first larger wave of Mac FakeAVs just think what would happen as they continue to grow. If Mac FakeAVs were to become like Windows FakeAVs I hope all Mac users start adding a antivirus scanner to help prevent them. I honestly do feel that Mac FakeAVs will start becoming like Windows FakeAVs. In fact some of the Windows FakeAV creators may be behind these Mac FakeAVs.

 So everyone who uses a Mac or Windows machine, watch out for FakeAVs and do not try to pay for them.

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