Looks Like Macs Aren't So Secure After All

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Apple has been eating king-size portions of crow lately, as its squeaky-clean security image has been muddied now that 650,000 Macs have been infected with the Flashback trojan. Last week Apple released two OS X software updates to patch the hole, and this week it announced that it will release a Flashback removal tool soon. Still, Apple’s reluctant response to Flashback had a President-Bush-and-Hurricane-Katrina vibe to it, and Apple still hasn’t gone on record to say it still cares about black people.For people wondering if they have the virus, there are many free removal tools available from companies like Kaspersky, and advanced users can use the terminal to do it UNIX graybeard style. It’s not a worm, so it can’t infect your computer without you visiting one of the four million shady sites that exploits the hole. If you have been playing Russian bride roulette online, you might want to give a Flashback scan a whirl.After a not-so-subtle ribbing of Windows security in its famous “I’m a Mac/I’m a PC” ads, the ear-to-ear smiles of Windows users was creating a northern lights effect that could be seen planet-wide. Clearly Apple’s “security by obscurity” approach has just bitten the company in the ass. Walk into a cafe, and you’d have a hard time saying Macs are still obscure -- and virus writers know it.It’s worth pointing out that this is a Java insecurity, not a fault of OS X itself, but Apple does share the responsibility for Flashback’s proliferation. Since Windows has been the primary target of these types of vulnerability exploits, Microsoft has been more diligent with security updates, and the Java security hole that Flashback exploited was patched months ago on Windows. Apple has been aggressively adding security features to OS X, and Mountain Lion goes farther than most OSes for malware prevention, but it looks like Apple isn’t being paranoid enough. Welcome to success, Apple -- here’s your tinfoil hat. Now wear it. Continue Reading

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