What’s described is trojan horse malware, not a virus.
This one’s been around a while. Any Adobe updates I make are from adobe.com ... never through a pop-up.
This isn’t a virus, anyway.
It’s a Trojan Horse, and it’s a problem, but it doesn’t replicate itself.
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.
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.
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.
“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!
Argh..............How do you know the malware is there?
Wonder how many have their Tax Info/TurboTax stuff on their computers.
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This is impossible because Macs are immune. Only Microsoft’s Windows is vulnerable.
Does anyone use a Mac?
Are they just breaking the Martin shooting too?
LOL. Must be the thin air in Denver.
FLR