Even Macs are in danger from viruses: the new and biggest threat is called “Flashback.C” and risks causing many “casualties” among users of Apple devices. Here’s how to recognize it to avoid it.
There is little talk about viruses on Macs since the system is considered particularly secure, or at least much more so than average.
However, in recent days, many Macs have been attacked by a new, powerful, and menacing virus that manages to infiltrate Apple PCs running both Lion and Snow: its name is “Flashback.C” and at first glance, it appears to be an installation package for Flash.
Once accepted – unknowingly – the Trojan manages to trick the security settings, completely disabling the system’s anti-malware protections: this doesn’t happen by chance, as the first step Flashback.C takes is to disable XProtect.
Immediately after, however, it is difficult to identify the threat since one often doesn’t even realize they have been infected: the Trojan actually remains active but silent, thus giving no sign of its presence except in response to a command issued remotely by criminals.
Flashback.C enters the Mac, therefore, only if voluntarily downloaded by the user, albeit unknowingly.
The only valid advice in this case is to avoid downloading Flash components from unknown sites, turning instead directly to the official Adobe website.
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