Apple posted their own support document today, titled How to avoid or remove Mac Defender malware, in which they describe how to respond to this malware. Their removal instructions are essentially identical to what I’ve outlined in Identifying and removing MacDefender trojans, which should be reassuring to those who have followed my guidelines. Even more reassuring is the fact that the article refers to a soon-to-come software update to help combat MacDefender and its variants. Whether this will come in the form of another update to Quarantine or whether they plan to develop a different response to this particular threat is something that only time will tell. Regardless, this promise of action should ease users’ minds, especially in the wake of rumors that Apple support techs have been told not to handle MacDefender issues, though some may criticize Apple for not taking swifter action.
