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Malware Disguised as Antivirus Targets Mac Users

A long time ago, a fake antivirus named MAC Defender was widely circulated online among Mac users, and most Apple Mac OSX installed the application. It looks similar to an Antivirus app but maliciously accesses your system data through the Safari browser. It was transferred through web searches and malicious links that show up from the top search result on the Safari browser. At first, it prompts a fake alert saying that your computer is infected by malware, and then it downloads the fake antivirus zip folders using the JavaScript within the page. If you had accidentally installed the MAC Defender malware, procced with the quick steps given below to get rid of it.

Malware Disguised as Antivirus Targets Mac Users
  • On your Mac, open Finder and click the Go menu at the top of the window.
  • Select the Applications option from the pull-down menu.
  • In the Applications folder, click the Utilities icon and select Activity Monitor.
  • Select all the MAC Defender programs from the displayed list and stop all instances.
  • Navigate to the 'Library/StartupItems, Library/LaunchAgents and Library/LibraryDaemons' file path and select all the MAC Defender instances.
  • Next, move them to the Trash folder.
  • Open the Applications folder again and delete the MAC Defender application.
  • Press the Command + Spacebar to open the Spotlight search.
  • Type 'MAC Defender' in the search field and hit the Enter key to check the remaining malware files.
  • Also, empty the Trash folder.
  • This will fix the Mac computer from the MAC Defender's malware attacks.
  • To avoid future attacks, open the Safari browser and click the Safari menu.
  • Select the Preferences option from the drop-down menu.
  • Click the General tab and uncheck the 'Open Safe files after downloading' checkbox.
  • It will disable the malware function in the Safari browser.