Mac OS X Now Updates Malware Definitions Daily

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Link Removed - Invalid URL what changes have been made in the latest Mac OS X Snow Leopard Security update that was released earlier today. Besides adding specific detection for the "Mac Defender" malware, Apple has added a daily update to this database.

Apple maintains a list of known malicious software that is used during the safe download check to determine if a file contains malicious software. The list is stored locally, and with Security Update 2011-003 is updated daily by a background process.

This means that Apple will be able to push out profiles for newly found malware without requiring a new software update.

Users can opt-out of this daily download if they choose

Source: Mac OS X Now Updates Malware Definitions Daily - MacRumors.com
 
Apple on Tuesday shipped the promised update to help remove the MacDefender malware, and in a surprise move, also added functionality to Mac OS X that will now check for new malware definitions daily.

The move by Apple to add daily malware checks is a significant shift in the way that the company handles malware and potential infections of its customers.

Until now, Apple has handled such incidents on a case by case basis and pushed OS changes when it needed to address a new problem.

But now the company has essentially included an auto-updating anti-malware system with OS X.

The security update that Apple released Tuesday performs several specific tasks.

It adds a new definition to the existing anti-malware checks in OS X, and also will automatically remove any instances of the MacDefender malware that it finds on the machine. But most significantly, security update 2011-003 adds the automatic daily checks for new malware signatures.

Date: 31 May 2011

Source: Apple Adds Daily Malware Updates to OS X | threatpost
 
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