Apple starts getting scareware.

You know, it’s amazing how even a brief acquaintance with Apple’s customer service* can make the schadenfreude all the tastier:

One of the most pervasive and costly types of infection is now hitting Mac computers, signalling the end of an age of innocence for Apple customers, who until now have been spared many common cybersecurity problems.

Apple didn’t really handle the problem well, either: they apparently seem to be thinking that this was an one-time thing, instead of being the harbinger of The Time Of The Suck that Microsoft has already had to deal with.  Well, they’ll learn – and in the meantime, I’m going to make sure that all of my account information with this company uses a debit card; which will be annoying, but not as much as somebody hacking Apple and running up ten grand on my household’s credit card.

I suggest that the rest of you do the same.

Moe Lane

*It took me an hour and three different people to find out that Apple does not have a clue about what is the iPad equivalent to Powergramo (allowing me to record Skype calls and turn them into mp3s).  I don’t mind – too much – that something like that is only available on real computers; I do mind that Apple doesn’t seem to take demands on my time as seriously as I do, considering that they want to sell me stuff.

[UPDATE]: The person who emailed me this has passed along where he got it from.

4 thoughts on “Apple starts getting scareware.”

  1. As noted by the last two paragraphs, the reason they have been spared up to this point is because Mac’s market share is less 10% and that isn’t profitable to scammers. All programs have holes, it’s just a matter of sitting down and finding them.

  2. Regarding the Debit Card strategy: Bad Idea. VERY BAD IDEA. In fact, Debit Cards are a bad idea all the way around. Here’s why:

    If someone hacks your debit card account they can empty your account and the bank is under NO OBLIGATION other than their word to make you whole or indemnify you.

    With a credit card THE MERCHANT is required, by Federal Law, to prove that the charges are legitimate. I.E. the burden of proof is on THEM that the charges are legitimate and not you that they are not.

    Clark Howard (I won’t post his link on your site but Google knows where he lives), who refers to debit cards as “Fake Visa/MasterCard” is the goto guy on this issue.

    1. Bob: I understand your objection, but without getting into my business too much suffice it to say that I have safeguards in my particular case. 🙂

Comments are closed.