Lately, it seems Apple can’t catch a break when it comes to security. First, an embarrassingly high number of Macs were infected by the Flashback Java trojan; now things aren’t getting any better for Apple’s rep. The latest OS X security breach is a doozy: After you install the latest Lion 10.7.3 update on some Mac configurations, from then on the login passwords of users who log in will be stored in plain text. Since anything related to security should be encrypted, that’s like going to the bank machine and, instead of hiding your PIN entry, you yell “SEVEN, NINE, TWO, SIX” and leave your card in the ATM. It’s that dumb.Apparently, this blunder was due to an Apple (presumably former) programmer leaving on a debug flag that should never have been set when the update was published. Excuses aside, this has the makings of a great British television show or Peter Sellers movie. Title suggestions include Rowan Atkinson is... Expert Security Programmer Extraordinaire, Be Kind: Close Wallet When Done Stealing or Top Secret: Password on Door.In the meantime, there’s not much affected users can do about this, other than wait for Apple to issue another OS update, presumably called “Lion update: tail between legs edition.” Continue Reading

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