In Nuking Mac Defender, Apple Intros automatically updates its anti-malware database to OS X

Apple has finally stepped in to crush MacDefender, the malware that has exploded on users' computers in recent weeks. Keeping its promise to neutralize MacDefender's orbit, Apple has just released Mac Security Update 2011-003.

This update is not limited to a simple MacDefender nuclear weapon. For the first time, it introduces on Mac an anti-malware software with automatic update.

The download, which is only 2.1 MB, provides a file quarantine definition for OSX.MacDefender.A malware and all known variants of the xprotect.plist file.

What is xprotect.plist? This is a file on your Mac that allows OS X to identify files that may contain malware and to warn the user when it tries to open the file that it should be discarded. in the basket.

Apple has updated the xprotect.plist file only several times in the past through periodic security update patches. That's all OS X necessary. The speed with which MacDefender has spread in the OS X ecosystem and the speed with which malware writers have adapted seem to have even given Apple a break, because with Mac Security Update 2011-003 , Apple has given it the update with the new malware definitions regardless of a manual update of the software.

For those of you who wish to disable the new anti-malware software with automatic update from Apple, simply uncheck "Automatically update the list of secure downloads" in the Security Preferences.

This is a big change in the way Apple handles malware, reflecting the Mac's growing status as a target for malware, as well as the seriousness with which Cupertino actively controls threats to the Mac. Anyway, it is a software update that you will want to recover, post as soon as possible.