Apple Releases Second Mac Update To Fight Flashback Trojan

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Apple Releases Second Mac Update To Fight Flashback Trojan

There has been a recent rash of Trojans that have been infecting Apple Inc’s (NASDAQ:AAPL) Mac computers. The Flashback Trojan, which was first released in February and has since infected 550,000 Macs. Although it may be too late for some, Apple released a patch just mere days ago and just today they released an update to fix the small glitch that’s primarily affected OS X Lion. It’s highly recommended that all Mac users download the patch.

Security company Intego posted the following on their blog:

It is possible that Apple discovered a minor glitch in the first update, necessitating a new release. In any case, it is essential that all Mac users apply this update. The Flashback malware has been very active in the wild, and can install with no user interaction, if Java is not patched.

Like a lot of malware infections and viruses, the Flashback Trojan can affect Mac machines without any interaction from the user. This infection comes in through a glitch in Java and appears to the user as Adobe Flash where it seeks out stored usernames, passwords, and other personal user data.

If you think that your Mac computer might have the infection, there is one way to find out. Mashable has created two scripts aptly named Trojan Check 1 and Trojan Check 2 which you can download on your computer, unzip, and double click to read the script. When the script reads Does Not Exist, that means your system is safe. If the script reads something else, check out F-Secure’s instructions on how to manually remove the trojan.

Viruses and malware can happen on virtually any internet-accessible device- even Apple products. That’s why it is recommended to keep your computer updated with the latest anti-virus and anti-malware software. Viruses are an inevitable part of modern computing but with a little savvy know how, it’s possible to prevent most infections.

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