It's unclear, however, whether those removal abilities will extend to the previous malware included in Snow Leopard's definition list or to future malware. There's also the issue of Mac Defender variants that have already begun to spring up around the Internet, including a particularly nasty version that .

While seeing Apple actively combatting malware is a step in the right direction, its future handling of potential malware outbreaks will bear far more weight. Apple now has the means to quickly and efficiently deliver malware protection to its users, but it remains up to them to make sure that they use it.