How to remove new Mac Malware

While Mac users are relatively safe from the huge number of viruses that threaten PC machines, a new piece of malware has swept across Apple computers.

The threat works like this – a phishing scam has targeted Mac users, redirects them to a website that tells them their computer is infected. They are then told to download anti-virus software to fix this, but in reality this is actually a piece of malware.

According to Apple, “its ultimate goal is to get the user’s credit card information which may be used for fraudulent purposes”. The names MacDefender, MacProtector and MacSecurity have been used for the virus.

Apple is actually working on a Mac OS X update to remove the malware, but until then, here are instructions to remove it:

• Go the Utilities folder, in the applications folder, and then launch the Activity Monitor.
• In the pop-up menu in the upper right corner, choose “all processes”.
• Under the process name heading, look for the titles “MacDefender”, “MacProtector” or “MacSecurity”.
• Then, click the “quit process” button, select quit, and then quit the activity monitor application. Then, open the applications folder.
• Locate the malware, and then drag it to the trash.