Two days ago I told you that a new version of the Flashback trojan can infect any Mac without the user entering their administrator password and yesterday I told you that Apple released an update to solve the vulnerability on which the trojan worked. Unfortunately, Apple's reaction was late because various versions of the Trojan would be infected already over 600.000 Macs that are now used in a botnet type network and with its help hackers can attack almost anything. The most interesting part is that 274 infected computers are from Cupertino, the location where Apple's headquarters are also located.
Variations of the Flashback trojan have reportedly infected more than half a million Macs around the globe, according to Russian antivirus company Dr. Web. The company made an announcement on Wednesday—first in Russian and later in English—about the growing Mac botnet, first claiming 550,000 infected Macs. Later in the day, however, Dr. Web malware analyst Sorokin Ivan posted to Twitter that the count had gone up to 600,000, with 274 bots even checking in from Cupertino, CA, where Apple's headquarters are located.
The information about the network of virtual robots comes from Russia, from the Dr. Web company that produces antivirus solutions and claims to follow the evolution of the Trojan. In the past, Russian companies were behind attacks against American companies, and last year a Mac malware called MacDefender was developed and supported by a company from that country. No one knows how valid the Russians' information is, but it is not hard to believe that such a large network of virtual robots would exist even if we are talking about Macs that should be "safe".
