Quote:Apple releases patch as 500,000 Macs infected with the Flashback Trojan.
Apple has released an urgent patch that will fix a security hole in its Mac operating system that has allowed some 30,000 Mac computers in Australia and more than 500,000 worldwide to be infected with malicious software (malware).
The critical update to Apple's version of Java for Mac OS X plugs at least a dozen security holes in the program and mends a flaw that attackers have recently pounced on to broadly deploy a malicious software program, known as Flashback Trojan, both on Windows and Mac operating systems.
Flashback Trojan's most recent variant - it has been around since 2011 - self installs after users visit legitimate websites that have been infected to distribute the program - a process known as drive-by download. Once installed, the malware sniffs data traffic from the computer in search for user names and passwords.
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