Damaging virus attacks Mac computers

FOX31 Denver ^ | 4/11/12 | Dave Young

[AngelesCrestHighway]

It was only a matter of time before the hackers got to Mac computers.

[Dr. Sivana]

What’s described is trojan horse malware, not a virus.

[al_c]

This one’s been around a while. Any Adobe updates I make are from adobe.com ... never through a pop-up.

[Old Teufel Hunden]

"It is a real wake up call for so many of us who assumed our Mac’s are virus proof."

Congratulations Mac users! It's not that Mac's were virus proof. It's that they were such a small insignificant user group that it wasn't worth the time and trouble for hackers to make viruses or trojan horses for them. Now your user group has grown enough that it is worth their trouble to do it.

[Izzy Dunne]

It's that they were such a small insignificant user group that it wasn't worth the time and trouble for hackers to make viruses or trojan horses for them.

Same tired old argument.

Never mind that it's been debunked so many times it's silly.

Maybe you can explain how a freakin' phone, with 100k users gets a virus before a computer with 10+ million users.

[Izzy Dunne]

This isn’t a virus, anyway.

It’s a Trojan Horse, and it’s a problem, but it doesn’t replicate itself.

[Vinnie]

I’ve gotten an update popup for Abobe Flash several times.
Haven’t tried the update and now I won’t.

It may be legit but not taking the chance.

[Hodar]

It’s a “rude awakening” for millions of Mac users around the world.

Ok, first off there were a reported 640,000 infected Macs - not millions.

Secondly, this was a "Flashback Trojan", not a virus.

Thirdly, this was due to an exploit in an older version of Java (not Adobe this time!!) that has been patched. However, some users are simply not chosing to update their OS, thus remain susceptable to these kinds of things.

If you don't patch your machine, and you are running 3rd party extensions on your OS ... you are going to be vulnerable to an exploit.

[chris_bdba]

They don’t listen this is about the 90th time this so called “virus” post has been posted and every time they are told it isn’t a virus but they see the headline and don’t read anything more.It so far has done little to anyone, it has to be downloaded and opened by the user and by now I’d hope everyone had got the update that was offered 2 weeks ago to keep this from happening.

[Gator113]

I recently received an update popup for Abobe Flash and I bit.

How do I determine if my system is now infected and how do I deal with it?

[battousai]

What a Catch22, Adobe products, like Flash, are so full of bugs that there are legitimate updates almost every other week to patch something or the other, so one might put themselves at other risks by avoiding all updates. Best would be to reject the pop-up updates, but still go to the Adobe website and make sure you get to the latest version.

[Road Glide]

“Damaging virus attacks Mac computers”

Flashback is NOT a “virus”.

It’s a trojan, and could not and does not infect Macs without some “user input”.

Yes, the trojan tries to trick the user into believing it’s an update for Adobe Flash, which the user then “installs”. The user has to “take the bait”.

This is distinguished from a virus, which is self-installing malware that requires no “user action”.

I refrain from saying “stupidly take the bait”, as I sense that most Mac’ers feel confident that when they see an update “presented” to them, it’s genuine (because nearly every time, it is).

I’ve seen a couple of “flash update” alerts, but somehow avoided installing them. As a Mac user, one will have to become “more aware” of the malware!

[Clara Lou]

Read post #8, his 3rd point. If poster is correct, you’re fine with your Adobe update.

[hummingbird]

Argh..............How do you know the malware is there?

Wonder how many have their Tax Info/TurboTax stuff on their computers.

[Old Teufel Hunden]

"Maybe you can explain how a freakin' phone, with 100k users gets a virus before a computer with 10+ million users."

Norton...

[donozark]

Flashback Checker from github.com will tell you if your machine is infected. Doubtful. Mine wasn't, nor do I know anyone so affected by it. The download is quick/easy/ and free.

PC World has a link to it as well.

[Anitius Severinus Boethius]

The word “virus” has morphed and almost all “viruses” on the PC side now are malware. And guess how many PCs are infected by someone clicking on something they shouldn’t have? Probably close to 90% of infections of malware.

So keep being semantically difficult, but the most clicky users of the PC are now clicky users on the Mac because they have been told that Macs can’t get “viruses”.

But they sure can get “trojan horse malware”, can’t they?

[Jeff Chandler]

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[hoosierham]

I regularly see the fake Adobe update and just alt-f4 to get rid of it;it is also the only malware Windows Defender has identified and removed,but my ISP runs anti-virus .

[Gator113]

Thank you. I just got off the phone with Apple... we checked it out and I don’t have any issues.

As mentioned by another FReeper, the gal told me that as long as I stay updated, I shouldn’t have any problems. I am very good about keeping my iMac updated.