You’ve heard the mantra: Mac’s don’t get viruses.
Well, perhaps you haven’t heard it recently. That’s because of a few security flaws that Apple has recently acknowledged. The latest one is actually a worm (malware) that turns Macintosh computers into zombie boxes — just like their PC cousins!
Oh, I remember well those “I’m a Mac” and “I’m a PC” TV ads. How I can imagine Justin Long and John Hodgman bantering back and forth. “I get lots of viruses,” Hodgman’s PC would say. And Long’s Mac would just have to confess, “Me, too!”
The article (link below) doesn’t mention how the Macintosh’s get infected, or how to remove the virus. But the infection seems pretty wide-spread. Also the article is a bit technical.
If Apple follows through as it has with other security concerns, then any vulnerabilities in OS X will be fixed pronto. Then again, you can’t fix stupid: Don’t allow unknown software to be installed on your PC. Mac people now have to heed that admonition.
I’m not really surprised as the number of Macs has taken off the value of a Mac malware increases to make it viable to write. I was always of the opinion that the Mac had security flaws there wasn’t enough reason to find them. Now there is!
Comment by glennp — October 2, 2014 @ 8:27 am
Sometimes general Unix flaws seep into the Mac. The latest security update fixed an issue with bash in the Terminal. That issue was pretty remote. This issue is scarier, again, because the article doesn’t say how the infection is being spread.
Comment by admin — October 2, 2014 @ 8:34 am
Mind you Mac OS is based on Unix is it not? (only ever had brief play with a Mac). Unix is pretty well not used outside of industry/university , so that is why there is not a major security problem, the closest thing to it is Linux in the PC world so I’m wondering if some hippy dippy hacker wrote a Linux thing and then that has got up the food chain to a Unix box and from Unix to Apple? Makes you think!
Comment by glennp — October 2, 2014 @ 8:42 am