WASHINGTON – Attention Mac users: Your computer might not be as virus-proof as you thought.
Ars Technica warned on April 2 that a Trojan affecting Macs had been spotted — later confirming that it was a variation of a virus that first made an appearance last year called the Mac Flashback Trojan. The virus appears with the file name BackDoor.Flashback.39 on Macs.
The virus was able to infect machines through a hole in the Java software for OS X Lion and Java for Mac OS X 10.6.
Apple issued a patch for the hole on April 3, but according to its website, will not confirm any information about the virus until a full investigation is completed. However the anti-virus vendor Doctor Web found that more than half a million machines were infected.
Security researcher Mike Geidi told the Huffington Post that this should be a wake-up call for Mac users.
“Their system is not immune to threats,” Geide says. “And the need to follow best security practices, such as remaining current with patches, is ubiquitous — it doesn’t matter if you’re using Windows, Mac, or even mobile phone.”
Mac users are encouraged to check their computers for the virus. The patch, which will fix the Java glitch put not destroy the virus, can be downloaded from Apple. Security site F-Secure has issued instructions as well as a download on their website that will disinfect computers.
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