Apple to support reps: 'Don't confirm Mac infections' Secret memo outed!!

Apple being Apple.....


Apple officials have instructed members of the company's support team to withhold any confirmation that a customer's Mac has been infected with malware or to assist in removing malicious programs, ZDNet's Ed Bott reported on Thursday.

He cited an internal document titled "About 'Mac Defender' Malware," which was last updated on May 16 and says that the trojan, which surfaced earlier this month and masquerades as legitimate security software for the OS X platform, is an "Issue/Investigation In Progress."

"AppleCare does not provide support for removal of the malware," the document, which was labeled confidential, stated. "You should not conform or deny whether the customer's Mac is infected or not."

The memo's disclosure comes as the number of reported Mac attacks has skyrocketed, Bott said. According to an earlier article he published, he recently found more than 200 separate discussion threads on discussions.apple.com in which users complained of infections that caused their Macs to behave erratically.

"Porn sites just started popping up on my MacBook Pro," one user wrote. "Is this a virus? I have never had a virus on a Mac before and I have been using Macs for years. Please help!"

The con artists behind Mac Defender hook their victims by presenting Mac-using web surfers with images that depict an antivirus scan taking place on their machines. The images falsely claim users are infected with serious malware and urge them to download and install the antivirus package. Those who fall for the ruse are then infected. Similar scams have plagued Windows users for years, often to the delight and scorn of Mac and Linux fans.

According to a third article penned by Bott, AppleCare reps are seeing a four- to five-fold increase in the number of calls requesting support for rogue antivirus scams targeting the Mac. ®
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2011/05/20/apple_malware_attacks/


What is wrong with this company? why can they never own up to anything without so much subterfuge and deception?
there is a virus attack on macs, so what, deal with it. why try and sweep it under the rug? it's not the first and wont be the last virus/malware/spyware attack on a Mac.

it's not that it's a big deal that Mac, just like Windows Pc's can be targeted, the big deal is when you try to hide that its happening and direct people to try some antivirus solutions from the Online Mac Store and yes they cost money.

here is the confidential internal memo....


WOW
AppleCare does not provide support for removal of the malware. You should not confirm or deny whether the customer’s Mac is infected or not.

Explain that Apple does not make recommendations for specific software to assist in removing malware. The customer can be directed to the Apple Online Store and the Mac App Store for antivirus software options.

Important:

Do not confirm or deny that any such software has been installed.
Do not attempt to remove or uninstall any malware software.
Do not send any escalations or contact Tier 2 for support about removing the software, or provide impact data.
Do not refer customers to the Apple Retail Store. The ARS does not provide any additional support for malware.

3gs said:

I just went to my hotmail inbox. Page turned into something else. a pop up came up like when you have to download a pdf file or something, but description said something about Malware. And the browser was running down a list of things. Quickly closed it. thought I clicked on something, by accident so I tried again and same thing happened.

Click to expand...

Here are the steps to take to identify if you have it, and how to remove it safely. I found this link from someone on the mac support forums. not surprisingly there are no instructions from Apple!
http://www.reedcorner.net/news.php/?p=138

there are an awful lot of relieved and happy Mac users thanking him in the comments section

Apple acknowledges Mac Defender malware, promises software update

Apple has decided to publicly acknowledge the Mac Defender malware that seems to be creeping onto Mac users' computers. The company posted an online support document Tuesday evening that outlines how to identify and get rid of the program, which attempts to trick users into handing over their credit card information. The company also promised to issue a software update soon that will specifically hunt out and remove Mac Defender and its variants.

"A recent phishing scam has targeted Mac users by redirecting them from legitimate websites to fake websites which tell them that their computer is infected with a virus," Apple wrote in its support document. "In the coming days, Apple will deliver a Mac OS X software update that will automatically find and remove Mac Defender malware and its known variants. The update will also help protect users by providing an explicit warning if they download this malware."

The much-welcome acknowledgement from Apple comes less than a week after it came out that real users were beginning to see this malware in the wild a little more often than usual. When we investigated the issue, we were told by several Apple Store Geniuses that they had also seen a spike—one Genius at a large Apple Store said he had seen malware reports in his store go from approximately 0.2 to percent to 5.8 percent in a matter of weeks, with the large majority of those being Mac Defender or its variants, often known as Mac Security or Mac Protector. (Smaller, third-party support folks were somewhat split on whether there had been a spike in malware reports.)

At the time, one of the more controversial aspects of Apple's reaction was that there was none—Apple had instructed its AppleCare and retail staff not to even acknowledge Mac Defender's existence, and not to remove it from users' infected computers.

Now, however, the company has apparently had a change of heart. In the support doc, Apple says to trash the app immediately if you haven't installed it yet, but if you have, there's a series of steps to follow in order to get rid of it. And, of course, there's also the lazy route: if you have Mac Defender installed but haven't given it your credit card information yet, you could just wait for Apple to issue its software update and have it removed automatically. Or, you can use the Mac Defender removal tool from Icrontic.


Better late than never