Half a million Mac users hit by Flashback virus

Originally Posted by MarkoD

"The virus is spread when computer users are tricked into visiting a compromised website, which then loads a malicious executable file (.exe) onto the user's computer."

Well it's a good thing macs don't open .exe files or this story could be an actual concern

The Flashback trojan is actually loaded via a Java applet and exploits a Java security vulnerability that was first discovered and patched by Oracle over a month before Apple released their patch.

Don't kid yourselves fellow Mac users - we are FAR from immune from malware and this example is only one of the most public and widespread infections reported. There will be many, many more....

[marie]

Originally Posted by patd

The Flashback trojan is actually loaded via a Java applet and exploits a Java security vulnerability that was first discovered and patched by Oracle over a month before Apple released their patch.

Don't kid yourselves fellow Mac users - we are FAR from immune from malware and this example is only one of the most public and widespread infections reported. There will be many, many more....

I have Sophos antivirus on my mac, are there better antivirus programs out there?

[globaldesigns]

Just wanted to make fun, in reality no one is safe, and because there are some masses of macs now in the world, it is worthwhile to the virus writers to utilize them. I just like poking fun at anyone that thinks they are immune. No one is, even linux, unix, whatever.

The only safe computer is one not connected to the internet, with no dvd/cd rom or any ability to plug in an external device. But then all you have is a calculator!

Originally Posted by marie

I have Sophos antivirus on my mac, are there better antivirus programs out there?

Well - since you have AV at all, you're already well ahead of the majority of Mac users and I think Sophos is pretty good. Its been around a long time, protects against trojan and worms as well as viruses and best of all its free.
If you are interested in a pretty low cost alternative that has more expansive covereage than Sophos (firewall, anti-spyware, works on iPods, iPhones, etc) then you might want to look at Intego VirusBarrier
Plenty of hardcore Mac users still claim the best Mac AV is no AV
Plenty of those are now wondering what critical data (credit card info, user names and passwords) they may have exposed to Russian hackers via the Flashback Trojan.