More Than 600,000 Macs Infected

Mac OS X has been relatively safe from malware. However, there has been a few malware scares recently that have affected a significant number of Mac users.

One of those was MacDefender fake antivirus scam that led users to believe their systems were infected and asked for credit card details to remove the "infection". Another one was DNSChanger malware, which directed affected computers to malicious websites that tried to get people provide their personal information.

The latest malware to hit Mac users has been Flashback. It appeared in spring last year as a fake Adobe Flash player installer. Getting infected with this malware was relatively easy to avoid, plus Apple quickly patched the hole as part of security updates. But then, Flashback came back exploiting a Java vulnerability and, by simply visiting a malicious website, this malware could install on a Mac running Java. It didn't require any user attention. Although Oracle patched Java vulnerability back in February, it didn't help Mac users because Apple uses its own version of Java. Apple (finally) patched Flashback last week... two months and 600,000 infections later :(

There is a free tool that lets you check whether your Mac has been infected with Flashback. Simply go to http://public.dev.drweb.com/april/ and follow a few simple steps. But regardless of whether you have it or not, make sure you keep up with Apple security updates.