Apple, Mac, iOS4, iPad, iPhone and (in)security...

Security industry insiders have long known the Mac platform has its holes. The Flashback Trojan is the first in-the-wild issue that's confirmed this, and big-time. More will follow unless Apple steps up its game.

Apple has cultivated a myth about security on the Mac platform. The myth goes like this: Apple users don't need antivirus software. We're more secure than anything out there. Security worries are overblown.

In reality, Apple practiced security by obscurity with the Mac.

Those days may be ending in a hurry. Apple's relative silence about malware is going to have to end as the company finds itself managing a large ecosystem, noted ZDNet's Ed Bott.

Delivering massive security updates during product launches and software rollouts just isn't going to cut it.

                        ===> Read more, YOU should!!! <===

The nightmare scenario for Mac owners is here. At least 600,000 Macs worldwide have been infected, silently, by the Flashback virus.

What makes this outbreak especially chilling is that the owners of infected Macs didn’t have to fall for social engineering, give away their administrative password, or do something stupid.

All they had to do was visit a web page using a Mac that had a current version of Java installed.

Macs are not immune. For years Apple owners have been told that Macs don’t get viruses, but we know that’s not true.

And Apple’s casual approach to security updates makes them arguably more vulnerable to this sort of attack than other platforms.

Mac OS X succombe au cheval de Troie Flashback

Le dénommé Flashback poursuit ses ravages sur Mac OS X et atteint les 550 000 machines infectées. Il s’agit d’un cheval de Troie qui exploite deux failles de sécurité Java.

Le 16 mars et le 3 avril, Apple a déployé deux correctifs destinés à résorber les failles en question, sans toutefois orchestrer de mise à jour silencieuse.

===> Aussi, nombre d’utilisateurs n’ont pas appliqué ces patchs. <===

Autant de postes de travail en sont restés vulnérables.

There are 600,000 Macs being remotely controlled by the growing Mac botnet, according to Russian antivirus company...

F-Secure Security Labs brings you the latest online security news from around the world. Ensure that you are up-to-date with the latest online threats to guarantee your online wellbeing.

Our Anti-Virus for Mac detects the latest Flashback variant as Trojan-Downloader:OSX/Flashback.K.

Here's some of our recent Flashback descriptions:

• Flashback.I
• Flashback.K

Our previous Mac related posts include instructions on how to disable Java, how to check for a Flashback infection, and manual removal:

• Mac Malware at the Moment
• Are you having a (Mac) Flashback?
• Mac Flashback Exploiting Unpatched Java Vulnerability

===> For those of you celebrating the Easter Holiday this weekend — if you're visiting your parents and they have a Mac — now is the time to update, disable, or remove their Java client plugin/installation! <===

(And that goes for Windows too.)

The company launches another Java update designed to patch a hole in the Mac OS exploited by the widespread Flashback trojan. Read this blog post by Lance Whitney on Apple.

Un éditeur de sécurité russe estime à 600 000 le nombre de machines d’Apple infectées par le Trojan.

MacOS reste la plate-forme la plus hermétique aux malwares mais son succès dans le monde suscite de plus en plus d'intérêt de la part des pirates. La preuve : l'essor de Flashback, un Cheval de Troie qui aurait tendance à vite se propager sur la planète.

Le malware qui profite de deux failles de sécurité du plugin Java s’est propagé principalement en Amérique du Nord (76,4%), au Royaume-Uni (12,8%) et en Australie (6,1%). La France quant à elle représenterait 0,6% des ordinateurs infectés par le cheval de Troie. C’est la compagnie d’anti-virus Russe DrWeb qui a mené l’enquête.

The recent reemergence of the Flashback OSX trojan has shown a lot of things, but none more clearly than this: I have no clue how to counter virus and...

I remember telling friends and supervisors multiple times that if a major Mac virus or trojan were to emerge, I would be at a complete loss as to how to fight it. This is probably still true, as the emergence of the Flashback trojan has shown most clearly.

The most recent version of Flashback targets a unpatched Java vulnerability in OSX, one that Oracle fixed months ago but Apple never got around to relaying. Now, I’m still not entirely sure what Flashback does, but I was pretty completely clueless on how I could fight it. This is the bitter reality of being a Mac owner in 2012. I have very little idea of how to keep my machine safe.

And I imagine many other Mac owners feel the same way.

If the half million Flashback-infected Macs are any indication, ===> Mac owners are all going to need a crash course in computer safety. And fast. <===

If you thought your Mac was safe from harmful computer viruses, think again. Ars Technica reported on April 4 that the "Mac Flashback trojan" has returned with a vengeance in recent weeks, now affecting hundreds of thousands of Apple laptops.

===> If you thought your Mac was safe from harmful computer viruses, think again. <===

                          ===> Nobody is perfect!!! <===

Ars Technica reported on April 4 that the "Mac Flashback trojan" has returned with a vengeance in recent weeks, now affecting hundreds of thousands of Apple laptops.

Ars first reported about the issue on April 2, explaining that anti-virus and computer security firm F-Secure had spotted the virus in action.

Le malware Flashback exploite une faille de Java sous Mac OS X pour voler les données d'accès à des sites web populaires.

Depuis deux mois, BackDoor.Flashback.39 espionne les faits et gestes de milliers d'utilisateurs de produits Apple sur le web. La compagnie à la pomme a réagi en sortant un patch pour Java... il y a deux jours. Le 4 avril, Dr. Web, une firme russe de solutions anti-virus, évaluait le nombre

d'ordinateurs infectés à 550 000, puis ajustait son estimation à 600 000 quelques heures plus tard dans un message sur Twitter.

Apple users will be suffering a crisis of faith, as it was revealed its faith-based security system failed to prevent over 600,000 Macs around the world from being compromised by the Flashback Trojan.

Apple has now released a patch that should squash the vulnerability. Whether or not Apple users will rush to protect their machines is another matter. Earlier this week, Sophos' Graham Cluley urged users to be vigilant. There had been a "flood of Mac malware activity" against users in mid-2011, with a steady stream since.

Users were encouraged to consider that many cyber attacks are not specifically technical, but rely on social engineering and human folly.

Apple fans would be "foolhardy" not to protect their Macs with anti-virus software and to keep it updated, Cluley said.

===> "Especially as there are free Mac anti-virus options available, you really have nothing to lose". <===

                       ===> NOBODY IS PERFECT!!! <===

Read more: http://news.techeye.net/security/600000-macs-compromised-by-flashback-botnet#ixzz1rAgKQUW6