It should come as no surprise that Macs are susceptible to viruses mallicious attacks, almost all computers are. Last week Mac users were reminded of this fact as a malware spread through the Internet. Though at first Apple reportedly avoided assisting those affected, the company has offered guides to resolve the issue. 

The most recent scares came in the form of "scarewares"--software that fooled users into believing a false virus has been installed in their computers. The malwares (Malicious Software) used aliases like MacDefender, MacProtector and MacSecurity to lull unsuspecting victims to a false sense of safety. Following a convincing warning, the scareware led users to a website that offers to remove the virus with an anti-virus software for a fee. 

The string of malware scams have been linked to ChronoPay, a Russian payment processor, by security researcher Brian Krebs, reported PCWorld. 

PCWorld reports: 

A leak of ChronoPay's internal documents last year, caught by Krebs, provided further ties between the Russian online payment firm and the malware, which may be hiding under different aliases, including MacDefender, MacProtector, MacSecurity and Apple Security Center, according to eWeek. The documents have also signaled that two new domains -- appledefence.com and appleprodefence.com -- were registered on May 20 to ChronoPay, evidence that the Mac Defender malware, which started its Apple-unfriendly onslaught on May 2, isn't finished yet.

Read more here. 

eWeek reports: 

"Cybercriminals will continue to target Mac users because they are currently a 'soft target',” Graham Cluley, senior technology consultant at Sophos, told eWEEK. Mac users have been told so often that Macs don’t have viruses that they are now highly vulnerable to attack.

Apple finally broke its silence this week, posting a support document with instructions on how to remove the rogue application if the user has downloaded it. Apple also promised to roll out an update to Mac OS X that would automatically detect and remove known variants of the scareware.

Read more here.

Ed Bott from ZDNet reports: 

So how big is the problem? Apple’s silence makes it impossible to know for sure. However, I’m told that the division that handles Mac support calls receives between 10,000 and 20,000 calls a day. If 25% of those calls are related to this issue, which has been going on for 25 days, the total number of customers affected could be between 60,000 and 125,000, and growing.

Read more here. 

If you were one of those affected by the spreading malware, follow the link to Apple's support site to remove said malware and make sure not to share any personal information on an unknown link. 

 

Update:

Apple has sent out security updates expanding their quarantine list to add the infamous MacDefender malware via Mac OS X 10.6 Snow Leopard anti-virus feature. Take a gander into your updates if you feel you may be affected.