Half a Million Computers Affected Macintosh Trojan

MORE than half a million computers have been infected with Trojan Flashback Apple. This was revealed by Russian anti-virus companies, Dr Web.

In its report, the company claims about 600,000 have already installed Mac malware that have the potential for hijacked and used as a "botnet".

Dr. Web says more than half of these cases is based in the United States. Apple has released a security update, but users who have installed the patch kept open the possibility of infection.

Flashback was first detected last September. At that time, anti-virus researchers identify Flashback by masquerading as a Flash Player update. The latest version of the malware that exploit vulnerabilities in the Java programming language, to allow code to be installed from the fake site without permission of the user.

Dr Web said after the Trojan is installed, the trojan sends a message to the server controls the intruder with a unique ID, to identify the infected computer.

"By introducing the criminal code can potentially control the machine," says Boris Sharov chief executive of the BBC.

"People used to say Apple computer, unlike a Windows PC, can never be infected, but it's a myth," said Tsoriev East, an analyst at Kaspersky Lab. (BBC/Wtr2)