Doctor Web has revealed that over half a million Apple Mac users have been infected by a Flashback Trojan.
More than 60,000 located in the UK
The Russian antivirus firm said that the malware began to spread in February and wasn't closed by Apple until this week. An analyst for Doctor Web tweeted that the number of infected units has reached more than 600,000.
How to check if your Mac is Flashback infected
Doctor Web said: "Systems get infected with BackDoor.Flashback.39 after a user is redirected to a bogus site from a compromised resource or via a traffic distribution system. JavaScript code is used to load a Java-applet containing an exploit. Doctor Web's virus analysts discovered a large number of web-sites containing the code."
The exploit saves an executable file onto the hard drive of the infected Mac and then goes on to harvest sensitive information including passwords. "The file is used to download malicious payload from a remote server and to launch it." said Doctor Web.
Most of the infected Apple Macs are in the US and Canada at 56.6 percent and 19.8 percent, respectively. The UK comes in third with 12.8 percent, which represents more than 68,000 infections.
The firm recommends that users downloads and install a security update from Apple to prevent their system from being infected.
Comments
Duncan said: Can you name a single virus that infects Mac OS XOne tends to find that misinformed idiots have no idea what constitutes a virus and conflate the term with Trojans and other malware
Maccyroo said: Hopefully this will stop all thosemisinformed idiots who seem to spend their entire lives under the illusion that Macs dont get viruses andtrying to convince others to believe it tooIf i had a penny for every time I have seen that comment on differentforums and on Yahoo Answers I could have retired at age 30
Johnyboy said: Moree to come as Apple popularity grows eh iPad and iPhone next perhaps
Mannyd said: Fool MACs dont get viruss Thats why I bought onePC Tech OK Can I have mybusinesscard back