Flashback Malware Puts Apple under the Gun

The security industry is all worked up and is having a real go at Apple for the latter’s turtle-esque approach towards malware and spy software eradication. Security analysts have strongly criticized the company for being ignorant about the impact of iPhone spy software and “too slow” to wipe out the malware that has resulted in over 600,000 Macs being infected with Flashback Trojan. The iPhone maker might have released a couple of patches to counter the OS X Java Virtual Machine flaw, and might also be working on another tool to remove existing infections, but they sure have taken their time in getting off their lazy backsides! And justifiably, the company is now having to face its fair share of jibes and sneers.

September attacks

September last year was the first time the virus took a bite of the Apple (pun intended) and this gave the mobile spy mafia the opportunity to muster the arsenal to scare the daylight out of networks all over the globe. What the cyber criminals did was they amassed the infected Macs into a massive botnet that had the potential to cause huge damages.

One of the largest infections

With 600,000 being touted as the number of devices that were affected due to the infection, this makes it one of the largest infections in the history of the company. And another intriguing stat that came from the episode was that of the aforementioned 600,000 machines 98 percent ran OS X. This basically brings the susceptibility of the operating system with regards to Flashback.

Procrastination

Security experts are of the opinion that Apple was aware of the potential threat long before it eventually surfaced in September, and hence, it was actually the company’s laziness that cost them dearly. A similar defect in Linux and Windows machines was sorted out in lesser time and one can’t pinpoint anything but complacency on the part of Apple for underestimating the Flashback’s destructive power – which is significantly more than most iPhone spy software or mobile spy applications. The OS X users could’ve been protected from the Java flaw had the company reacted quicker.

The OS X blunder

Witnessing OS X become the biggest victim was a particularly huge blow for Apple, for the simple reason that Apple patches up Java implementation on the OS X itself, while Windows and Linux machines – which didn’t really have to bear any massive brunt whatsoever – have their patchwork done by Oracle. Therefore, while other operating systems suffered minor setbacks, Mac users were screaming bloody murder seeing their devices going berserk.

Fixing the issue

Apple has gotten an earful from every quarter possible for its three-month delay in sending security update and rightfully so. Hence, the company is now vying to cover its bases to avoid a similar happening from throwing the proverbial spanner into the iPhone works again. Apple has categorically stated that the vulnerability that was breached in September has now been sorted out and a software is in the process of being developed that would detect and remove Flashback malware in the future.

Meanwhile, the users have been advised by the company to disable Java from their browser preferences for the time being and deactivate the botnet’s command to ensure that their devices don’t suffer till the problem is sorted out.