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Looks like all that Mac malware that’s been taking the internet by storm is causing serious havoc for administrators. Network security staff from Oxford University have been “somewhat overwhelmed” by the Flashback Trojan on a “windows scale”, plus they reckon Apple’s “making minimal effort” to help them out. The bad news as there’s even more Mac malware in the wild too.
In a rather candid blog post, the Oxford security team explained they were struggling to deal with the sheer number of Flashback-infected machines. The last time they saw this many malware-ridden computers was back in 2003 with the Blaster worm, which hit Windows pretty hard.
I wouldn’t be surprised if other Mac-using institutions are suffering the same problem, faced with inefficient built-in tools for removing the menace combined with Apple’s response time being just a tad tardy. It also doesn’t help that another new bug has been found in the wild that targets OS X. This one takes advantage of an old vulnerability in Microsoft Office for Mac, which was patched by Microsoft back in 2009. Unfortunately not everyone bothers to update, and while it doesn’t seem to be able to do its evil business on Lion, Snow Leopard users are still vulnerable.
It just goes to show that no matter what operating system you’re using you can’t afford to be complacent about what you click on and when you update. Maybe we should all switch to Linux as the last ‘malware free’ safe haven. [ZDnet 1, 2]
Image credit: Malware from Shutterstock
I feel sorry for anyone who used a Mac as a Virus/Malware free haven.
And if Oxford Uni haven’t updated their Office and then got infected, they aren’t getting an ounce of sympathy from me.
oxford was infected by flashback which i believe uses a java exploit? could be wrong
the bit about microsoft office exploit using virus is another mac virus that has been discovered but not yet seen at oxford
easy to misread
Guess that makes sense, Guess Oxford are going to be updating Office for the next few days then.
Re: sympathy- I do agree, but it’s likely to be students’ personal laptops causing strife when they log onto the Uni network.
I’m not aware of any departments using Macs- most use Windows, and a few in the science departments are in Linux.
I use Ubuntu, and recently upgraded from 10.04 to 12.04 and found myself with a rather nasty virus. It reduced my laptop to an unusable mess, and caused quite a bit of frustration trying to remove it. I believe the virus is called ‘Unity’. So just remember, linux isn’t the safe haven people would want you to believe.
I see what you did there.
Calling Unity a virus is a bit of an insult to viruses don’t you think?
Unity’s a pretty launcher that’s perfect for a more general audience. The only actual criticisms I’ve seen for the system are always minor and superficial – essentially, people will always resent change for the sake of it.
You’re right, it is quite pretty. However I don’t need or want extra eye candy when I’m using a desktop. I just need it to work quickly and easily. Another thing is that awful sidebar. To me it makes the whole screen look offcenter. Autohiding the bar results in it being picky as to when it wants to unhide. Being unable to move the bar to another part of the screen is just unforgivable. I have a huge list of things I hate about unity, but that’ll be a post for another day.
I agree that you should be able to move the bar, but in 12.04 it no longer autohides. Getting the aspects they focused on working well, such as universal search and aesthetics, is something they have achieved with the new Dash. Now it’s a case of refinement, and that’s what they’re doing. It’ll take another version or two before it’s completely up to a standard expected to compete with OSX and Windows, but that doesn’t mean you can already write it off as shit.
And essentially, if you don’t like it then don’t use it. That’s the beauty of Linux. There’s plenty of highly-maintained distros such as Mint and Debian just waiting for you.
I used Unity for 3 days on 12.04 in the hope it had improved from when I last tried it, and I still don’t like it. I’ve kept it on here to hopefully see if it will improve over time, but for now I’ll stick to xfce4 as my main desktop environment. I want Ubuntu to do well and I’ve been using it since 7.10 but Unity just isnt ready, especially not for an LTS release.
In all fairness, I’ve only been using Linux since Ubuntu 10.10 so I never really too had much experience of GNOME Shell. I’d agree that Unity hasn’t quite felt like a finished product until 12.04, as I said, but it’s always been a pleasure to use. I think definitely by the release of 13.04, it will be the standard to compare GUIs to. It’s got so much going for it, I feel it’s only time before it blossoms into something truly amazing.
“plus they reckon Apple’s “making minimal effort” to help them out.”
I don’t see this quote in the source post? Just running software update will patch the exploit and remove the infection
Thankfully this infection has been relatively harmless as far as I know, all it seems to do is hijack ad clicks so they receive the ad revenue. Hopefully Apple will get this sorted quick.
“Maybe we should all switch to Linux”
It’s taken you this long to realise that?
our uni was hit by pretty much the same thing
worth mentioning that it’s not a case of the university macs being hit, it’s the students on the wired network with macs who have it. the university macs probably all have sophos on them, but doubtful that any of he students had it
Pretty sure every uni’s had it. Cambridge has disconnected every infected mac from the network until it gets fixed.
Good god, the entire student community won’t be able to get onto their computers!
Everyone knows rich boys love Macs
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It’s not surprising students like Macs, 15% discount, 3 years free warranty, a free printer and a free iPod touch in recent years
Yeh but consider you are paying twice as much for the same spec, 15% discount plus a free printer hardly makes it sound appealing, if you like OSX so much buy a windows PC with an intel processor at half the price and run OSX on it… Then you can buy a printer, an iPod touch AND an extended warranty and probably still have change…
It’s not just about specs though is it? There are many other benefits such as an excellent quality screen, brilliant build quality and Apple’s excellent support. My 2 and a half year old MacBook had a loose headphone jack, so Apple gave me a brand new MacBook Pro (because they no longer make the MacBook) to replace it. No other manufacturer would do that. And I can’t forget the trackpad, which is the best trackpad you’ll ever find on a laptop, bar none. No Windows PC trackpad even comes remotely close, trying to use a PC trackpad feels like you’re wearing boxing gloves after using the Mac’s. With multitouch gestures that you can customise it seriously boost productivity, there is no way I could work without it and I’m not exaggerating, I actually prefer it to a mouse. And of course Mac’s hold their resale value, so after an upgrade or two you’re actually saving more money than if you went for a PC.
Running OSX on a PC is no way an alternative, have you looked into hackintoshes? They are seriously hard work, unreliable etc. Not something I would remotely consider for work, and you don’t get the tight integration between hardware and software that is one of the reasons Macs are so good.
Blah blah I’m not trying to convert anyone, just pointing out that the switch to a Mac was an informed decision I and many other people made because there are a huge number of benefits, not because of an Apple logo.
As a windows/linux user this amuses me, it’s always funny when people say “I’m getting a mac because they don’t get viruses…”.
I know windows are vulnerable but only because their market share is so great, it was expected that as the mac market share grew then there would be more reason to make a virus for it.
Personally I think if you use a PC sensibly, use good software and aren’t a big enough idiot to click suspicious links to download a .exe file then you shouldn’t get one, if you do in that case then you deserve it…
1. It’s a malware not a virus, Mac has not gotten any viruses before
2. This is the first and only malware for mac.
1. theres little difference
2. Are you serious? 6 alone with their own wiki entries! http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Category:Macintosh_viruses
If you were meaning OS X, plenty there too – “As of 2006, there were at least 60 known security exploits targeting a the base installation of Mac OS X (with a Unix-based file system and kernel).”
First of all: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Malware
Secondly: http://macscan.securemac.com/spyware-list
are you drunk?
And I’ll add this link to my list as well: http://www.iantivirus.com/threats/
I wonder if this post will await moderation too?
In case my other post never appears, the first link was to the wiki page on Malware, and the second was to another site that listed mac malware.
Moral of the story, you’re still a dumbass if you use a Mac or a PC.
…and you don’t have any Anti-Virus protection.
Please don’t all switch to Linux, i like being in a small group which dosn’t get the attention of virus makers
In seriousness I kid, if your looking to switch may I suggest either Ubuntu Linux 12.04 or Linux Mint
should of worn a condom….