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Apple quashes latest version of MacDefender

Apple quietly updates anti-malware definitions in Mac OS X Snow Leopard to detect new variant of rogue antivirus malware.

Elinor Mills Former Staff Writer
Elinor Mills covers Internet security and privacy. She joined CNET News in 2005 after working as a foreign correspondent for Reuters in Portugal and writing for The Industry Standard, the IDG News Service and the Associated Press.
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Elinor Mills

Apple is updating Mac OS X Snow Leopard systems with protection against the latest variant of MacDefender, after criminals wrote a new version of MacDefender to circumvent the OS X malware detection added earlier this week.

A new entry for "OSX.MacDefender.C" is being pushed out via automatic updates to the Xprotect.plist file that contains the signatures for identifying malware, according to a report published by Italian Web site Spider-Mac.

The malware writers are likely to continue creating new variants, but Apple appears willing and able to try to stay on top of them.

MacDefender is the first rogue antivirus created for the Mac platform. It poses as an antivirus warning to try to trick people into paying for software they don't need.

(Via MacRumors)