Mac Defender Trojan Horse Virus Appears First as an Antivirus Software Scan

Those crafty hackers have gone and done it again! You see, for years one of the main advantage to owning a Mac was the fact that viruses didn’t fare well on that platform. Of course, a large part of that equation was market penetration. In other words, why design a Trojan horse, spyware or worms for Mac users when they make up about five percent of the computer-using population? The simple answer is that you don’t. It’s a simple numbers game. However, with Apple computers seeing increasing popularity, it was only a matter of time before hackers became a little more interested in attacking the Apple platform. Enter Mac Defender, a new Trojan horse for Mac on the malware scene.

While it's not extremely malicious or particularly dangerous, Mac Defender is certainly an annoying little Trojan horse. Basically, Mac Defender tricks you into downloading by posing as antivirus software. Once you download it, Mac Defender pretends to run a virus scan and then warns you about viruses by opening pornographic websites, thus showing you that your computer is infected. If you then try to eliminate the virus, Mac Defender first charges you to register the software for $60, $70 or $80, depending on the length of the membership you elect to purchase. After it receives your payment, the virus warnings stop coming. Simple enough, right?

So how do you avoid Trojan horses like Mac Defender? Well, first you have to know what a Trojan horse is and what it does. Like the mythical device used to conquer the city of Troy, Trojan horses work best when they disguise themselves in plain sight.

In other words, a Trojan horse gets in by pretending to be something that it’s not. Before you know it, it’s in the center square of the city and people with spears are slaughtering everything in sight – metaphorically, of course. That sort of camouflage makes Trojan horses difficult, albeit not impossible, to detect and avoid. Here are some tips and tricks to make your web surfing and downloading safer and potentially less painful.

1. Look before you leap. This means that under no circumstances should you download anything from site that you aren’t entirely sure is safe. Don’t open email attachments from strangers, and definitely be careful about sketchy websites. Also, be aware that it’s possible to receive emails from friends' addresses that aren’t from your friends or on the up and up. If a friend sends you an email with questionable content, make sure that your friend’s email account hasn’t been hacked. Does Darcy normally send you emails with ads for male enhancement? If not, check with Darcy before you open any attachments or downloading anything.
2. Don’t be complacent. No matter how great your antivirus protection is, it can be circumvented. In fact, that’s the entire strategy behind a Trojan horse! Maybe your security software works great and you’ve never had a problem, but even if you have an amazing bulletproof vest, you still shouldn’t invite people to shoot at you.
3. Screen your downloads thoroughly. Sometimes convenience wins out over caution, but the problem is that once you download a virus, your computer is infected. Unhide file extensions and don’t give your computer access to automatically download and run software. It’s better to be safe than sorry.

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