Hack a Mac, or 500,000

[Renegade]

Well, you knew it was coming at some point. Looks like a massive hack on Macs is underway.

And this is bad... really, really bad...

http://bits.blogs.nytimes.com/2012/04/06/widespread-computer-virus-indicates-mac-users-no-longer-safe/

This week, security researchers discovered a new computer virus had infected half a million Mac users — about half of them in the United States. The virus is infesting users in the most surreptitious way possible: users need not manually click on any malicious links or manually download any malware to get infected. The program simply downloads itself. Once downloaded, the malware’s creators gain a back door that gives them unauthorized access to the victim’s computer.

“This is the largest scale attack on Mac OS X to date,” said Roel Schouwenberg, a senior researcher at Kaspersky Lab, an antivirus software company who has analyzed the malware. “And much more sophisticated.”

For now, the malware’s creators appear to be using infested computers for click fraud, in which they manipulate clicks on a Web advertisement in exchange for kickbacks. But as with all malware, its creators can choose to use infected computers however they like.

The malware infects computers in one of two ways. In some cases, users receive a pop-up prompt purporting to be from Adobe Flash asking them to install an update and type in their password — hence the Trojan’s name, “Fakeflash” or “Flashback.” But in most cases, attackers appear to have exploited a loophole in Java software that automatically downloads the malware onto victims’ machines without any prompting.

Remote root exploit? Nasty...

So...

BWAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAA~!

I can't wait to hear some of the total BS from the fanbois... If anyone reads any particularly idiotic blathering, please post it here for a laugh!

[Josh]

You're not hacked....You're just using your MAC wrong...

[wraith808]

Reported last year, patched last month... don't know what's up with that.  They say it's because Java isn't automatically included in the patches for Macs.

/shrug

[app103]

What makes this especially bad is the fact that most Mac users do not have an antivirus installed to catch it. They don't think Macs can get malware so they don't bother with it.

[KynloStephen66515]

What makes this especially bad is the fact that most Mac users do not have an antivirus installed to catch it. They don't think Macs can get malware so they don't bother with it.

You say bad, I say funny as hell...

Tom-A-to, Tom-ah-to

[Stoic Joker]

Let me put this as succinctly as I can...



Thank you.

[wraith808]

It's pretty amazing that something as detrimental as this, people are actually happy over.  I mean, vindication I can understand.  But happiness?  At something like this? 

[Stoic Joker]

The armchair general known as Apple has sat at the head of their cardtable battlefield piously peering over their plastic armies scoffing at the fates of those who actually were in the trenches. Smugly confident that their far superior and completely untested strategies would afford them swift and glorious victories against any attack. Their arrogant insistence on claiming that they really were ("Special")secured better than the rest and therefore must be the only safe haven for the iLife of the universe..

Their blithe insolence and blind assumption that they truly were impervious while never even knowing what it was like to have to make a critical decision while live rounds whizzed by their ears has earned them plenty of quality time as a laughing stock for all.

[wraith808]

You're not laughing at Apple- you're laughing at a terrible situation for multiple users, including those that don't fit the mold of the imperious coffee shop drinkers that look down their noses at PCs being victimized by some nameless offenders.  Just my view of it...

[Stoic Joker]

You're not laughing at Apple-

Yes... Actually, I am.

you're laughing at a terrible situation for multiple users...

That amounts to the "What about the children" defense. People do dumb shit every day ... It doesn't obligate me to lose any sleep over it. There was a crowd of sheeple that flocked to FireFox just before XP SP2 ... And they got there just in time for FF to get shot full of holes too. Did anybody (with a brain...) not see that coming?? It's not that FF was a bad browser (I have no problem with it), it's that a bunch of self appointed (security) mavens decided to wave it about like a magic cloak of invincibility. ...And got called for it shortly there after. Ha!

Likewise - as of late - a bunch of sheep have been herded into the Apple camp with a lure of ultimate safety. ...And they just got spanked for it. Hard ... And well deserved. Because what they should have done is spent some quality time (reading... (which is free)) finding out how to properly operate a computer in a secure fashion. Then it wouldn't have mattered what OS they were running as they'd be equipped with enough sense to know what to do next...or not to do in the first place as the case may be.

80/20 rule 101:
Did you update? No.
Are you infected? Yes.
...Do you see how these to points are associated? [Bobble-headed knod]
Good. *Smack* ...Now don't do that again.

The Darwin Awards are funny, not because it isn't tragic that the star of the story died ... But because the staggering lack of common sense displayed at the end left one to ponder how the hell they managed lived as long as they did.

[Deozaan]

OpenDNS is on it:

OpenDNS — security and DNS provider of choice for 2% of all Internet users — is blocking the Flashback Trojan, or what’s being described as one of the single biggest Mac security incidents of all time. As OpenDNS does in cases of very large scale attacks like this, the protection is included in Premium DNS and completely free to users. People not yet using OpenDNS need only to set up the service on their wireless router, computer or device to secure their computers and devices from the attack. (OpenDNS also offers OpenDNS Enterprise, a security service for businesses that includes comprehensive malware and botnet protection.)

If you’re already using OpenDNS services, no action is required to get the protection. It was enabled for you automatically. In addition to protection from Flashback, OpenDNS will also protect you from future, widespread attacks and make your Internet both faster and more reliable.

[KynloStephen66515]

Ignorance is no defense...

People who own macs think they own the world, and they think (in most cases anyway) that they are better than everybody else, and (until now) they thought they where invulnerable to everything...


So Yes, I laugh, and I laugh LOUD!  

[wraith808]

...

I guess I'll bow out of this.

* wraith808 shakes head

[Carol Haynes]

The humour of the situation is not the infections but that the invincible OS that cannot be infected has been. It is rather sad that so many people were conned to believe that crap and it is my fervent hope that a class action suit will follow against Apple who failed to live up to their own oft-repeated promises.

It is about times the liars were actually taken to task for their lying ways and compensate all the ignorant peasants they managed to con with false promises and assertions.

As for the users - I see infected computers on a near daily basis. Most people don't know how they got infected. I hope the incident doesn't cause them too much pain and rather than gloating people in the know can spread a little education on computer security.

[Deozaan]

I hope the ... people in the know can spread a little education on computer security.

I'm not really sure how education could help much in this case anyway. It's one thing to know not to open suspicious files, or even what constitutes a suspicious file. But how can you know in advance which sites have been hijacked, since just visiting them will infect your computer?

[Carol Haynes]

At least running a decent AV may help, even if it is only after the event. Apple have repeatedly said that MacOS is impervious to this sort of thing which has the implicit assumption that using AV products is pointless and unnecessary. I don't see that many Macs but I have yet to see one that has ANY kind of security system installed and active.

[lotusrootstarch]

Here's a free app that checks for the Flashback trojan...

http://9to5mac.com/2012/04/10/free-app-checks-for-the-flashback-trojan-infecting-600000-macs/

[Renegade]

...

I guess I'll bow out of this.

* wraith808 shakes head

It's one thing to laugh at a fellow human being in pain, and another thing to laugh at a fanboi (they're not "fellow humans").

Ok, I'm being a bit mean, but seriously... Who hasn't listened to some fanboi rant when you know full well that everything they're saying is total BS.

I remember one time talking at a bar with a fellow I know and he was going on about "Macs cannot get viruses. Only Windows can. It's impossible for a Mac to get a virus..." etc. etc. etc. The idiocy only grew from there.

Yeah... I'm laughing at those people. And their pain. I just don't care. They're too stupid to deserve pity or sympathy. I have zero sympathy for religious zealots.

Mind you, I do have sympathy for the poor non-zealot that got hammered. For those that use a Mac or any OS simply to get things done, and not for religious reasons, I feel sorry for them. They got screwed. Just like normal Windows users get screwed when there's an exploit.