Apple: Don’t Worry About New Malware, We’ve Got You Covered

Early in April, Apple’s (NASDAQ:AAPL) Mac OS X came under heavy attack, as over 600,000 Mac computers were infected with the latest version of the Flashback Mac Trojan via Java exploits, with 56 percent of the victims residing in the United States.

The firm promised to resolve the fast-growing problem and has since issued three updates, including the latest one last Friday that “removes the most common variants of the Flashback malware.” This update is the first one designed to detect and remove the Trojan, as well as repair Java vulnerabilities within the systems.

Despite the company’s steps forward, recent events have gone on to show how vulnerable the Mac OS platform is to attack — regardless of how damaging the malware is itself.

Security researchers have found two more instances of malware targeting the Mac OS X, both variants of the SabPub trojan, but they have said there is little cause for concern.

The first variant is known as Backdoor.OSX.SabPub.a, and like Flashback, it was likely spread through Java exploits on websites.

It is pretty much harmless, though, as this malware may have only been used in targeted attacks, and Apple’s latest security update rendered future Java attacks inconsequential.

The second variant uses infected Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT) Word documents as a vector distributed by e-mail and is used only in targeted attacks, possibly against Tibetan activists.