Do you have a Mac? If so, has it ever been infected?
I just heard about an attack-Mac agent that was discovered this week, by researchers at Kaspersky Lab:
“The malware infects computers in one of two ways. In some cases, users receive a pop-up prompt purporting to be from Adobe Flash asking them to install an update and type in their password — hence the Trojan’s name, ‘Fakeflash’ or ‘Flashback’. But in most cases, attackers appear to have exploited a loophole in Java software that automatically downloads the malware onto victims’ machines without any prompting.
Apple issued two security patches for the Trojan this week and encouraged Mac users to run their software updates as soon as possible.”
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17 Answers
I’ve been using a Mac since it was a one foot cube. I’ve never been infected. I also heard that there weren’t enough Mac users to bother with messing them up. True? I’ve no idea. I don’t open stuff that comes without my knowing what it is.
@Sunny2 The whole thing about not enough Mac users to bother writing malware for was true, but as Apple has been growing that is starting to change. The bad part for Mac users is there is quite a large portion of them who buy the whole “Mac’s are immune to viruses” idea, and don’t take the proper precautions to prevent infections.
No. Three laptops in the house and zero infection in 6 years.
I’ve had probably 15 Windows/PCs laptops over the past 25 or so years and I have never had more than a couple viruses (virii?) and they were all handled with antivirus.
Nope, never.
There is a software update to deal with the Flash virus. I installed it this afternoon.
13 years ago I had something run amok. I had to get a guru to erase it. Since then, nothing.
Hell no. I consider a mac an infection.
For all the people who have said no – are you sure and have you actually checked? This trojan installs itself just by you visiting an infected website and then installs a client for a botnet on the machine automatically with out any user involvement so no matter how security concious you are if you had java installed you were vunerable. The whole point of a botnet is to not draw attention to itself so it can function for as long as possible (mainly for sending out spam emails), so there will have been no obvious signs that your machine is infected.
@Lightlyseared So, what do I do about it? I am not particularly adept with the computer technology.
Sorry if redundant, but here is a great link on a current Mac Virus. How to check for it, and how to remove it. I checked mine, and all clear. Also make sure to run updates on your Mac as often as you can.
Mac Flashback Trojan
@Sunny2
Do you have a system update icon in your system tray?
@Sunny2 – click on the blue apple in the top left corner then click on software update, that will tell you what you need to update.
MY Mac OS 10.7.3 automatically informs me when new software is available. Like magic
Go to “System Preferences.”
Click on “Software Update.”
One choice will be “Scheduled Check”
You can sign up for daily, weekly (my choice) or monthly notification.
Or an automatic one. It’s self-explanatory.
I run the disk utility program before and after each download and installation.
Oh and thanks @gailcalled too. I just did that and got the message that I was up to date. I’ll be on the lookout for updates.
There’s an app to check if you are infected here
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