bawbac
macrumors 65816
1% who has reported the issue, which is about the amount of mac users who join forums.
The other 99% may be infected and may not know because they have been told the mac is "safe" and protected from such things.
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Flashback Malware Still Affecting over 100,000 Macs
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The other 99% may be infected and may not know because they have been told the mac is "safe" and protected from such things.
Yeah right...
Lets remember folks...this source is a company that would love to sell you an antivirus product..and a bad resource killing one at that. I don't see how they can be so confident in those numbers. Useless "facts".
Lets remember folks...this source is a company that would love to sell you an antivirus product..and a bad resource killing one at that. I don't see how they can be so confident in those numbers. Useless "facts".
Macopotamus
macrumors regular
chrono1081
macrumors G3
No the 1% is the actual number of infected whether they know it or not.
http://www.redmondpie.com/apple-releases-standalone-flashback-malware-removal-tool-for-non-java-mac-users-download-now/
They don't measure it by the amount of people reporting it, they measure it by seeing what the trojan is doing.
Don't act on someone else's initiative. Act on your own.
If you see on some news site, or via some popup dialog, that Flash (or any other software) is updated, then go to the download site by yourself, or invoke the update process provided in the software.
Let's say that Software Update says that there's some software that needs to be updated. Read what the update is about and click [Cancel]. Then, you go to Software Update by your own action and run it. If it says the same thing as before, you go ahead and upgrade.
The first instance COULD've been a Trojan that just happens to mask itself as Software Update, or Flash updater, or some other updater/installer.
But, if you run through the process by your self manually, and according to standard procedure, you won't invoke any Trojan.
…probably. If you follow this, you won't get infected by ANY trojan that I know of and you won't get phished, or scammed by any email.
Do I need to do anything?
Ok, so I've noticed this in the news but haven't paid any attention to it. My 2011 MBP shows no symptoms of any kind, and I run all of the automatic updates immediately. I don't use any antivirus software. I don't visit any weird websites other than photography stuff and various forums/news. Do I still potentially have this virus, or should I not worry if I have no symptoms? Sorry if this is obvious or rinse/repeat, but as I said I haven't paid any attention to this. Should I take ANY steps at all to check for this? Thanks for any advice
Ok, so I've noticed this in the news but haven't paid any attention to it. My 2011 MBP shows no symptoms of any kind, and I run all of the automatic updates immediately. I don't use any antivirus software. I don't visit any weird websites other than photography stuff and various forums/news. Do I still potentially have this virus, or should I not worry if I have no symptoms? Sorry if this is obvious or rinse/repeat, but as I said I haven't paid any attention to this. Should I take ANY steps at all to check for this? Thanks for any advice
RamGuy
macrumors 65816
Get ClamXav from AppStore for free, make sure to run it once a month, or even once a week (simply do a full-scan when your going to bed or something) and you are going to be okay.
It's not like you wouldn't be okay to begin with, the odds for getting this kind of malware (yes malware, this ain't a virus) on your Mac is second to none, and if you are so unlucky to get it you have to GIVE IT PREMISSIONS for it to do anything in the first place. Why would anyone type in their password and allow things they have no idea where comes from?
But lets say you have been both unlucky and stupid enough to get it, you never update your Mac so it wont get auto-removed by Apple running ClamXav once a week or once a month would get rid of these kinds of malware without any issues. The best and worst part about ClamXav is the fact that it's not realtime, this means it won't consume ANY performance besides when you actually decides to launch it and do a search on your computer like about any other solution from Symantec / Norton, Kaspersky, Sophos and any other would. The downside is that when not doing anything realtime, it won't get rid of malware the second it gets into your system so let's say you wore running Norton for Mac this malware would get instant kicked out of your system the second you allowed it, but with ClamXav it would get removed until you decided to scan your system.
You can say solutions like Norton for Mac is more secure at the expense of system resources. So it's up to the user to decide whether they like to go lower on performance for the sake of added security, or do manually scans every now and then and be a little less secure but get higher performance. The last option is to be completely ignorant and not running anything at all (like 99% of the current Mac userbase) even though you get applications like ClamXav for FREE right from the Mac AppStore.
Another downside with realtime solutions is the fact that they'll need admin rights to your system in order to work. This creates another security risk as if hackers manages to attack the actual security software they get direct control to your system without the need of any password from the user, but when running solutions like ClamXav which don't need admin rights you will still need to provide malware with your system password in order for it to infect your system in the first place.
It's not like you wouldn't be okay to begin with, the odds for getting this kind of malware (yes malware, this ain't a virus) on your Mac is second to none, and if you are so unlucky to get it you have to GIVE IT PREMISSIONS for it to do anything in the first place. Why would anyone type in their password and allow things they have no idea where comes from?
But lets say you have been both unlucky and stupid enough to get it, you never update your Mac so it wont get auto-removed by Apple running ClamXav once a week or once a month would get rid of these kinds of malware without any issues. The best and worst part about ClamXav is the fact that it's not realtime, this means it won't consume ANY performance besides when you actually decides to launch it and do a search on your computer like about any other solution from Symantec / Norton, Kaspersky, Sophos and any other would. The downside is that when not doing anything realtime, it won't get rid of malware the second it gets into your system so let's say you wore running Norton for Mac this malware would get instant kicked out of your system the second you allowed it, but with ClamXav it would get removed until you decided to scan your system.
You can say solutions like Norton for Mac is more secure at the expense of system resources. So it's up to the user to decide whether they like to go lower on performance for the sake of added security, or do manually scans every now and then and be a little less secure but get higher performance. The last option is to be completely ignorant and not running anything at all (like 99% of the current Mac userbase) even though you get applications like ClamXav for FREE right from the Mac AppStore.
Another downside with realtime solutions is the fact that they'll need admin rights to your system in order to work. This creates another security risk as if hackers manages to attack the actual security software they get direct control to your system without the need of any password from the user, but when running solutions like ClamXav which don't need admin rights you will still need to provide malware with your system password in order for it to infect your system in the first place.
I was thinking the same thing, but I ran the java update yesterday on my machine and it said it removed a variant of flashback. I'm as cautious as anyone, never download anything, updates as they come in, and checked my machines a week or so ago and came up with nothing, then I had it--according to Apple. My wife's imac came out clean. Wish I would have disabled java long ago. Now I'm concerned if my computer is clean after apple said they removed it.😕
669532
macrumors 68020
How can these firms estimate the number of infected machines, and then the changes from day to day?
You know I don't like to spread conspiracy garbage. But on this topic every story says these are estimated numbers or a best guess. Even still 100,000 is less than 1% of Mac users. How is this even an outbreak or panic like the media is portraying? I've gone around and checked about 100 of the machines at my work not a single one of them was infected. None of my friends have been infected and none of my home machines have been infected. So I'm starting to believe this is all BS that the antivirus companies are putting out so that you purchase their software subscriptions. I just feel they really want to be in the Mac market and capture Windows switchers.
Mattie Num Nums
macrumors 68030
Install ClamXav. Its low weight and gets the job done.
Not one of our clients got the Flashback Malware and a some of our clients jobs are to find pirated software/media in order to catch piraters; so you know they are putting shady things on there machines (they have admin rights too!)
Not one of our clients got the Flashback Malware and a some of our clients jobs are to find pirated software/media in order to catch piraters; so you know they are putting shady things on there machines (they have admin rights too!)
Renzatic
Suspended
I love how antivirus companies are viewed as parasitic idiots out to do nothing more than tarnish the good name of Apple here in Macland. Oh no! They can't be trusted! OSX is completely secure! I don't know anyone infected with this not-a-virus-rather-a-trojan, so all they must be doing is trying to drum up a panic so they can get more sales for their crappy software!
No. The media isn't portraying this as a huge outbreak and/or panic. It's not like all the tech sites are going to town with it like the news did with SARS a few years back. They're just reporting it. 100,000 Macs are potentially infected. If you're one of those unknowingly infected people, you probably want to know about it. Simple as that.
Don't take it so personally.
macsmurf
macrumors 65816
The starting number was around 600 000 or 1% of mac computers worldwide. That's on par with the Conficker outbreak which is the largest outbreak in the history of Windows, AFAIK. Of course, many more Windows machines were infected but taking the total number of Windows machines into account the percentage of infected machines was around 1%.
Conficker was a fairly sofisticated worm with implementations of quite a lot of different attacks. In that light, 1% for the comparatively much simpler Flashback malware is actually very widespread. The two month delay in releasing the fix was probably a big contributing factor along with the widespread belief that Macs don't get viruses.
It great to see that the number has gone down but 100 000 infected is still nothing to sneeze at (excuse the punnage).
Once you run insecure software with admin rights you cannot guarantee the safety of the system anymore. You should consider setting up virtual machines for this. You can simply clone them from a reference clean image and throw them away after you tested the shady thing. The host system would be safe and what happens in the VM doesn't matter since it will be disposed anyway.
Mattie Num Nums
macrumors 68030
They are using VM's. VM's are still using Network resources which in turn means they need to be treated the same as every other network resource.
RalfTheDog
macrumors 68020
I will say, I am a bit impressed with the AV companies. They are getting better at writing viruses. Who was the first to detect this. Odds are, they are the ones responsible.
Renzatic
Suspended
They're all out to get you Ralf. One day you'll be walking down the street, then....BAM. Norton walks up to you and infects you with a Sasser variant.
...it's a conspiracy, I tells ya!
RalfTheDog
macrumors 68020
How much does it cost to get them to ignore my pirated Irish Marmot porn collection? (Note: It is marmot porn from Ireland, not porn with Irish marmots. [I am sure some of the marmots are from Ireland, however, that is not the point. {I don't know how many of the Irish or non Irish marmots are pirates.}] )
There has been documented collaboration between virus writers and AV writers. Most of it is just, people writing bad viruses that would never work, sending them to the AV labs where they put them into their AV list, so they can say, "We have 10 hexillion viruses we can detect."
Trust me, if they could make more money by releasing viruses and they thought they could get away with it, they would do so in about three and a half moments. More likely than not, they would work through a proxy.
Mattie Num Nums
macrumors 68030
I think this is a better solution than AV software. It will do essentially the same thing for these kinds of threats as an AV software would do, except it won't bog down your system every time it needs to do a scan.
Mac infection
So what is the big deal?
I believe that most computers that got infected was because of users not having any concern.
My iMac didn't get infected because I pay attention on where I go on the internet, what I download & what I click on/open.
:roll eyes: Besides what percentage of Macs got infected ?
🙁 I won't even mention Windows computers because this isn't about that.
JC
So what is the big deal?I believe that most computers that got infected was because of users not having any concern.
My iMac didn't get infected because I pay attention on where I go on the internet, what I download & what I click on/open.
:roll eyes: Besides what percentage of Macs got infected ?
🙁 I won't even mention Windows computers because this isn't about that.
JC