“So, Macs are pretty secure when it comes to malware”
Apparently not secure enough.
(Sigh)
This is not a virus or a trojan. It does not install any software on your computer. It does not access any information on your computer. It’s a javascript that launches 150 windows. That’s all. It’s more social engineering than malware.
Are you seriously comparing a web page with 150 popup windows to a Windows virus that causes permanent corruption to system files? I knew once I saw people talking about "restore" that we were dealing with dumb Windows users. This ransonware may prove there are dumb Mac users, but their dumbness doesn't result in system file alteration. It would be interesting to see the hit rate for such malware on Mac vs PC.
I run OSX, which is basically unix. You cannot damage the unix OS without the root password. That is why unix systems are not very susceptible to viruses. Now Safari OTH, an application running on OSX can be hacked. But that has nothing to do with the underlying OSX.
Show me anything that is "secure enough."
By-the-way, you are STILL misunderstanding this. This is not at all about security. Nothing was breeched with this illusion. Nobody's computer was violated. Nothing was stolen. People MAY have been tricked into GIVING these people $300, freely, because they believed they had to, to get their computers back into working condition, but that was ALL ILLUSION, a trick.
The web browser was just forced into opening 150 sub-windows on the screen, one on top of the other, each demanding to be closed, before the main screen could be closed, or before the user could move to another tab or window. JAVA has that ability built into it to make sure that transactions are fully completed and not left hanging or secure data is not left where it can be mined. These miscreants have merely used it for no good. Combine that with Apple's reloading of previous browser sessions on opening of the browser, and you have a nightmare to get out of it.
There is a simple way, if the user knows it. Most do not, so I posted that solution on FreeRepublic.