Half a million Mac computers 'infected with malware'

[wynnejj]

The problem with open source is that it still requires education. While people can go through the code, most won’t. Its more trustworthy to get products from an established company, as they won’t include malware, even if they are closed source.

I don’t see much of a difference between the possibility of malware in closed source, commercial software and say the open source software maintained by a generally reliable open source mainstream Linux distribution - e.g. Fedora which acts as the proving ground for commercial RedHat. Bugs, maybe, but not malware. And, if you buy commercial RedHat, than bugs are minimal. However, if you install the distro, then download additional software from potentially questionable websites, well it is little different then all the other freeware out there. One thing that open source from a reliable Linux distro seems to have immunity is generally Ad-ware.

Years ago, the charge that one had to learn too much about the Unix/Linux command line is largely not true with more of the user-friendly distros. GUI installations mostly. I have found little difference in difficulty in re-building a Windows partition, compared to building a Linux partition nowadays, unless you choose a distro such as Gentoo, Arch, or SlackWare targeting geeks.

Bottom line… I think one make make reasonable arguments supporting the position that you are less likely to get “malware” from mainline Linux repositories that seek to gain a commercial audience for their free products with commercial support.

I’m a happy penguin, but then again my essential needs fit well within the set of Linux products freely available. And I spend virtually no time in keeping my system constantly updated, and I’m online all the time. (Knock on wood.)

 

[Dakota_Roberts]

Droids have a physical keyboard that’s basically qwerty, in fact that’s what I’m on right now

 

[Dale_M]

Despite Apple’s attempt to exterminate this pest, a new and hardier version of Flashback is spreading.

Apple released two security patches for the vulnerability and encouraged Mac users to run their software updates as soon as possible. Within two weeks, the number of infected computers dropped from 600,000 to 140,000, according to Symantec.

On Monday, however, researchers at Intego, another computer security firm, discovered that a new variant of the malware, called Flashback.S, continued to spread through the same Java vulnerability. Security researchers said the variant was “actively being distributed in the wild” and noted that the malware deletes traces of itself on victims’ machines to avoid detection.

The original Flashback variant used infected computers for click fraud, in which clicks on a Web advertisement are manipulated in exchange for kickbacks. Intego researchers did not say what the new variant of Flashback is being used for. But as with all malware, its creators can choose to use infected computers however they like.

bits.blogs.nytimes.com/2012/04/23/a-new-variant-of-malware-targets-mac-users/?src=me&ref=general#

 

[Tenofovir]

Despite Apple’s attempt to exterminate this pest, a new and hardier version of Flashback is spreading.

bits.blogs.nytimes.com/2012/04/23/a-new-variant-of-malware-targets-mac-users/?src=me&ref=general#

I don’t think Apple or anyone else can exterminate this problem. The best thing one can do is DISABLE JAVA in the Browser, or only browse legitimate websites.

The thing to remember is that Linux machines are also vulnerable to this exploit. It only happens that no payload is aimed at Linux machines at present.

Oh the good old days of Netscape Navigator in the early 90s.