Apple has acted promptly to issue software to remove a Flashback Trojan virus that is believed to have affected over 600,000 Mac computers worldwide. The virus removers comes shortly after Russian anti-virus firm Dr. Web identified the Trojan as a potential high-threat to infected users as previously reported by cheapest-iPod.
Before you going rushing headlong into downloading the released program however, there are a few things you should know. Firstly the stand alone utility is integrated into the recent security updates issued by JavaScript on Thursday and will only work if you have already installed that on to your machines. If you haven´t already downloaded the Java updates, the recent update released by Apple will not take effect.
Secondly, the update released by Apple, titled version 1.0 Flashback malware removal tool is only available for download by Mac owners running OS X Lion and OS X 10.6 Snow Leopard and earlier versions. The removal program will scan your machine and erase the most common variants of the Flashback Malware that it identifies.
Thirdly, if your machine is found to be infected you need to disable Java in your web browser preferences and re-run the recent software update recently issued by Apple. The software includes the same code as Thursdays Java update and will plug a security hole automatically without admin authorization, but if don´t disable JavaScript first there will be a conflict of instructions and the Apple update will be refused access.
The key points of Apple´s malware removal software reads:
- About Flashback malware removal tool
- This Flashback malware removal tool that will remove the most common variants of the Flashback malware.
- If the Flashback malware is found, a dialog will be presented notifying the user that malware was removed.
- In some cases, the Flashback malware removal tool may need to restart your computer in order to completely remove the Flashback malware.
- This update is recommended for all OS X Lion users without Java installed.
The Flashback Trojan was first identified as a potential threat last September, but at the time was considered a low-risk. The virus has since turned out to be the worst attack ever witnessed by the Mac platform – which makes you wonder why a prevention was not put in place when it was initially identified, low risk or not!
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