Mac Defender

Thank you!!!

Someone has created a site called clamxav dot org (the real site is clamxav.com) which ends up with a download link for MacKeeper and there is a YouTube video which leads you to this site as well.

Sounds like a very slimy outfit.

Thanks - sounds as though I'll be sticking with my recommendation to stay away from it......

R C R,

You said "For some Mac users it might be worth the price for the included 24/7 toll free support feature, but probably not for many."

To me there is one VERY cool feature. What if your Mac is stolen? If you've registered your computer with these guys and your computer is stolen just go to their website and login to your acct. and tell them it was stolen. Then the next time your computer goes online they will activate your iSight camera and take a picture of the thief and email it to you. How cool is that? 😎

It also seems to do a good job of locating tons of needless files that can be safely deleted, a feature that is not built into your mac and something even a Mac geek like me can't manually do without a considerable amount of effort. Perhaps it's a bit too agressive and might delete something you need? <shrug> 😕

D_Train wrote:

To me there is one VERY cool feature. What if your Mac is stolen? If you've registered your computer with these guys and your computer is stolen just go to their website and login to your acct. and tell them it was stolen. Then the next time your computer goes online they will activate your iSight camera and take a picture of the thief and email it to you. How cool is that?

Let's think this through. First, if you are a somewhat experienced Mac user, you should know to password protect ALL of your user accts AND to shut down your computer when in transit ( I assume we are talking laptops here ). This means that the thief would have to hack into the Mac to get it running in the first place, and if he/she has that skill, they will probably have the smarts to set up their own user acct ( admin ) which will bypass any software loaded at login by other users. If the thief doesn't have those skills, he/she will probably ditch the computer without turning it on if all accts are password protected. Also, who says the thief is dumb enough to go online before setting up his/her own user acct or even wiping the HD and re-installing OS X. Unlike with PC's, Macs have great re-sale value and the resale or use of a stolen Mac is generally more valuable than the data contained on a computer's HD. Granted there is a scenario where the laptop was in sleep mode and thus already logged into an acct, but surely anyone who knows enough to password their acct also knows to activate the option to require a password when waking from sleep and in the chance that the thief was really after data from the computer ( credit card info, passwords, etc ) taking a picture of the perp will not prevent the data from being stolen anyway. In other words, the functionality and/or benefits of having the Mac take a picture of the person using the device is either trumped or disabled by the simple process of properly securing your computer using the free methods contained within OS X.

Secondly, in order for that functionality to be active, there needs to be software running in the background ( started at login ) that enables the author of the software access to your computer's camera at any time. Do you leave your computer running on your desk in your bedroom ? You may just as well let the software manufacturer install video cameras throughout your home. The authors of MacKeeper may indeed be legit and honest, but can you trust whomever may purchase the rights to that software later ? How would you even know if the company was sold ?

Bottom line ... even if I had use for other functionality of MacKeeper, after hearing about this "feature" you couldn't pay me to install it on my Mac.

Apple recently published an article - How to avoid or remove Mac Defender malware:

http://support.apple.com/kb/HT4650

-mvimp

Dolphbucs (you must be in Florida, eh?) So who do you route for if the Dolphins play the Bucs? 😉

While you make some very valid points (I never thought of them having the ability to activate my camera any time they want to) the Mac user you describe is a rare bird indeed (can you say Utopia?). In my experience

(and I have a lot of experience helping Mac owners) at least 90% of the Mac owners out there have auto login enabled and do not have a screensaver password enabled. Of course the savvy, security conscious Mac owner you describe probably won't be a likely target for thieves anyway (because they live in a Utopia). Thieves are not always very knowledgeable about the computers they steal (there's that Utopia again) and usually steal from the easy targets, i.e. those that are careless about the security of their Mac's, who, trust me, are in the vast majority.

However, like I said, you made some very valid points and I appreciate it.

Don't sell the Mac community short. Almost every Mac owner I know ( like my 80 yr old Dad ) has password protection. I'll give you that many do not, but I'd say it's closer to 50/50 than the 90% you quote. You don't think theives are savy enough about what they steal to know to take a Mac laptop to a fence or disreputable computer shop ? I'm not in FL, I live in upstate NY. And where I'm from theives are VERY knowledgable about what they target. Trust me, I work closely with law enforcement and I know for a fact of what I speak. Don't underestimate the criminal element out there.

My point is why should a person shell out $40 for a questionable piece of software, when a little education from people ( like yourself ) who are out there trying to help people with their Macs will save them the cost as well as protect them even better anyway. I'm sure your heart's in the right place, but really, IMO you should be teaching them the proper way to set up their Mac first ... not just giving them a quick and easy software solution that costs them $$$$. For what it's worth.

Hi Dolph,

Well I'm not selling anyone anything, nor even recommending anything, just pointing out some observations from my point of view. Now granted the Mac owners I talk to may be mostly from the 50% of Mac owners that are not very savvy (like a lot of the people on these forums, they come here BECAUSE they aren't that savvy and need help more than those owners that are more serurity conscious). So I'll give you that maybe as much as 50% of ALL Mac owners have auto-login turned off. It's the people that have it turned off that usually have no idea what their admin password is. LOL!

Take care.

Apple has released a new software update that should scrub MacDefender from your system