Win32 Virus Removal

AVG Anti-Virus Free Edition 2012 review – PC Advisor

May 3rd, 2012 | Author: admin

Having recently reviewed Avast! 7 Free Antivirus, we thought it was only fair to do the same for another leading free antivirus offering, AVG Anti-Virus Free Edition 2012.

AVG was the first company to offer free AV protection and the policy has done very well for the company, as a lead-in for sales of its full suite. When installing the free AVG Anti-Virus Free Edition 2012, you have to be quite careful not to inadvertently ‘upgrade' to the full, put-your-hand-in-your-pocket, one. Once running, ads for other AVG products appear within the program, but these can thankfully be switched off.

Having downloaded and installed the AVG Anti-Virus Free Edition 2012 software, the overview panel offers five protection tools and another three optional ones, which you can activate as needed.

Anti-Virus – which like most such products these days might be better named anti-malware as it detects viruses, spyware, worms, Trojans and malicious adware – is the core of the suite.

LinkScanner is for browser protection and scans ahead, looking at the sites that are returned from web searches. It also provides protection against drive-by threats from bad sites.

E-mail Protection scans against spam and phishing attacks on your incoming e-mails, while Anti-Rootkit looks for low-level rootkit installations, often linked with adware and botnets. See also:Group test: what's the best security software?

Identity Protection uses heuristics to protect against identity theft from zero-day threats.

AV-Test checked out AVG Free 2012 in January and February of this year and scored it at a total of 14.0/18.0. Visit: Security Advisor

This score is better than average and when you break it down under the headings Protection, Repair and Usability, the only area where it sits noticeably below average is in the removal of malicious components of the test malware. Where the average was 54 percent, the AVG product scored 10 percent less, at 44 percent.

Protection overall scored 4.5/6.0, scoring slightly below average on zero-day malware protection in one of the two test months, but on or above average everywhere else.

AV-Test found it to be particularly good under its Usability criteria, with a slowdown of the computer of just 3s, when the average was 10s.

In our own usage tests, AVG Free 2012 performed pretty well. Scanning our 50GB basket of files took 34 min 58 sec and 178,044 files were checked. This gives a scan rate of 84.9 files/sec, putting it in the middle of the 2012 Internet Security suites we've reviewed.

Transferring a 1GB file with the program running, but not scanning, took 40s. When it was running a scan the time increased to 1 min 32 sec, an increase of 130 percent. This is again in the middle of the field, so it's probably worth scheduling scans overnight or during other downtimes.

There are three optional parts to AVG Free 2012. PC Analyser is the detection part of AVG PC Tuneup, which can be used to analyse and rectify problems like Registry errors and junk files.

One complete fix comes free, but after that you need to buy a year's subscription. Family Safety enables search filters, anti-bullying and real-time alerts, to protect younger members of a family. LiveKive is a bit like DropBox, providing backup storage and easy online file sharing. Both these services require separate subscriptions. Visit: Security Advisor

There are currently no price comparisons for this product.

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Try App Whitelisting to Mitigate Malware – SYS-CON Media (press release)

May 2nd, 2012 | Author: admin

There will always be a threat from malware - malicious software that is designed to steal or corrupt data on computers. Malware affects everyone from security services to silver surfers, and when it isn't checked it can wreak havoc.

Ultimately, it doesn't matter what size your business is, whether you're a multinational or a sole trader, the threat from malware is real and present, which means that you'll need a solution. Usually this means anti-virus software, but keeping on top of updates and distributing these to all of the computers in your organization requires regular attention.

Can application whitelisting help? Is it even a valid alternative, or should your business stick to the tried and tested solution of anti-virus software and malware removal tools that detect and quarantine malicious software, keyloggers, rootkits and Trojans?

The Typical SME Approach to Anti-Virus and Malware
If you are responsible for managing online security in your organization or you're involved as a stakeholder or an engineer, you will appreciate that most businesses take a reactive approach to virus and malware threats.

If a virus or malware infects one or more computers, steps are taken to update the AV software (typically by downloading the latest virus signatures) and remove the infection. In most cases this is successful - anti-virus software is generally fit for this purpose. However, there may be cases when virus signatures have yet to be added, making it difficult for the anti-virus software to find and remove the infection.

When malware is uncovered and the anti-virus solution is unable to deal with it, as is the situation in most cases, the latest version of one of the popular anti-malware tools should be used.

You might find that running the removal process in Safe Mode works best. Although it typically takes over an hour for a single infected computer, you should eventually be able to diagnose the machine as safe to use. In extreme cases, it can take a few hours to rebuild the machine because remediation efforts fail.

It's all rather slow, though, isn't it? More to the point, it is reactive rather than proactive.

How Application Whitelisting Can Help
In the horrific circumstance that all of your computers have been infected with malware, you might be pulling your hair out trying to raise as many engineers as possible while making alternative arrangements for users affected by the problem.

Or, you could be carrying on with the expected day's work, safe in the knowledge that there is no outbreak; no malware has been installed and no data has been lost or stolen.

Unless you run a computer network that has no Internet connection and a "no disks" policy, the only way to fully protect your users from malware is to employ a solution that uses application whitelisting, a process that protects the software that controls the behavior of your computers. If the software is not on the whitelist, it won't run.

It's the doorman of the software world, in many ways. Basically, if your name's not down, you're not coming in.

Is Application Whitelisting the Solution or Part of the Equation?
As things stand, no single solution can exist as anti-virus software companies are busy keeping their applications up-to-date, with both virus signatures and tools to prevent the applications from being targeted by viruses. This means that it is unlikely at present that any AV or anti-malware developer will branch out into providing a complete application whitelisting solution.

Similarly, application whitelisting cannot claim to be the complete solution as it can't deal with the task of removing threats.

It is, therefore, the perfect companion to anti-malware applications. When correctly configured application whitelisting can protect individual computers, servers and entire networks from malware.

Be Proactive, Not Reactive
Whichever way you look at it, the reactive solution of anti-virus and malware removal tools is only a single item on your network security utility belt. It has been proven to work in quarantining the offending code but is largely useless in actually protecting computers from being infected in the first place.

This is why application whitelisting is vital as a proactive solution. Using both in tandem can leave you with an extremely secure network that is protected against malware and anti-virus however they might be introduced (targeted attacks, USB sticks, or malicious attachments to emails).

Whitelists are widely used in website blocking and spam email management. Employing an application whitelist to protect your computers from malicious code that tries to run or install is a logical step to take in the fight against malware.

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Review: AVG Anti-Virus Free Edition – ITworld.com

May 1st, 2012 | Author: admin

May 01, 2012, 7:41 AM — AVG Anti-Virus Free Edition was PCWorld's top pick in April 2012's Free Antivirus You Can Trust. It performed well in virtually all of the tests we ran.

In our real-world malware detection tests, which evaluate how well an antivirus package will block brand-new threats, AVG's freebie blocked 85.7% of the samples, tying for the best result among the programs we tested. It detected 98.7% of the more than 129,000 samples of malware from the past four months in our malware "zoo" test. That's a good score, although a bit short of the best results we've seen.

AVG was at the top of its class in disabling active malware infections: On our test PC, it detected and disabled all malicious software, and removed all traces of malware two-thirds of the time.

AVG also scans a PC relatively quickly. When we directed it to check 4.5GB of data, it sped through the job in 1 minute, 35 seconds, the third-fastest time in this test and only 4 seconds slower than the fastest. Its on-access scanner--which runs when you open or save a file--took 4 minutes, 55 seconds to go through the same amount of data, about average for the programs we looked at.

I like AVG's main interface, though its advanced settings could intimidate some users. Apart from that caveat, if you're looking for solid, fast PC protection, look no further than AVG.

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Ip Internet Security Surveillance Camera Wifi

May 1st, 2012 | Author: admin

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Germany: loner terrorists are greatest threat – Bryan College Station Eagle

April 28th, 2012 | Author: admin

Published Saturday, April 28, 2012 8:58 AM By JUERGEN BAETZ
Associated Press

BERLIN -- Germany's top security official said Friday the greatest terror threat to the country no longer stems from big networks like al-Qaida but from small, independent terrorist cells or "lone wolf" perpetrators.

Interior Minister Hans-Peter Friedrich told The Associated Press that terrorist activities by Muslim extremist organizations have evolved to be decentralized, making their activities harder to track for authorities.

"What worries us" is that there will likely also be more lone wolf attackers who are not directly connected to a major terror group but have radicalized themselves, often through propaganda available online, he said. "There will likely be more of them because the Islamists' propaganda networks seem to be further gearing up."

"There is no more centralized planing... Single terror cells are being sent out, complete with information and propaganda. This is what worries us," he said.

Friedrich is headed to Washington next week to meet with officials such as President Barack Obama's top counterterrorism adviser John Brennan and Attorney General Eric Holder to discuss terrorism and cyber security issues.

There have been several unsuccessful or foiled attacks by Islamic radicals in Germany, and the first fatalities attributed to a Muslim extremist came last year in March when a 21-year-old Kosovo-born ethnic Albanian gunned down two U.S. airmen outside Frankfurt's airport. The lone attacker is believed to have been inspired by watching Salafist videos online.

Salafist groups -- espousing an ultraconservative interpretation of Islam -- have recently increased their presence and followers in Germany.

One radical group attracted as much public attention as criticism from officials this month after announcing it plans to distribute millions of free copies of the Muslim Holy Book, the Quran, in Germany.

"In this context it is worrying us that they are strengthening their propaganda and that they are explicitly targeting to win over young people," Friedrich said.

He also said cyber crime also is concerning security officials since hacking and spy attacks could target companies and the country as a whole, including its critical infrastructure.

Stuxnet -- a sophisticated virus that targeted Iranian nuclear installations -- "came as a warning to all of us that much more is already possible to be done with malware and virus programs than one had imagined," Friedrich said.

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DNSChanger to knock 350000 users off Internet this July – ZDNet (blog)

April 27th, 2012 | Author: admin

Every lousy day, here at ZDNet and all the other reputable technology news and opinions sites, we preach about basic computer security. Windows users are always the most vulnerable, but even Mac users can get hit as well. And, every lousy day, far too many people don’t pay any heed to these warnings. Take the case of DNSChanger, which was fixed months ago but is still going to end up knocking hundreds of thousands of PCs off the Internet this July.

DNSChanger is a Windows and Mac Trojan that’s been around since 2007. What it did was to cause Windows PCs and Macs to use rogue Domain Name System (DNS) servers. First, it changed your computer’s DNS server settings to replace your ISP’s good DNS servers with rogue DNS servers (PDF Link) operated by the criminal. Then, it tried to compromise your routers and home gateways. It did this by using the most default user names and passwords for small office/home office (SOHO) dynamic host configuration protocol (DHCP) servers. If successful, DNSChanger switched your router or gateway’s default DNS servers to the rogue DNS servers. This in turn would make all the PCs on your LAN go to the corrupt DNS servers. This way a single infected system could compromise every PC on a network even if they didn’t have an infection.

What happened then was that when you tried to go to a popular Website, like Amazon or iTunes, instead of seeing the content you’d expected, you’d see large advertisements or were rerouted to spam or malware sites. Adding insult to injury, DNSChanger also blocked access to anti-virus sites to prevent the removal of the malware.

Back in November, in Operation Ghost Click, the FBI shut down the botnet behind DNSChanger. In the meantime every major anti-virus company have updated their programs to find and smash DNSChanger. So, why in April, is is still a problem?

I’ll tell you why, because out of the four-million or so people whose systems were infected with DNSChanger, 350,000 or so, slightly less than one in ten, still have it and still haven’t fixed their computer or router’s DNS settings. Argh!

You see after the FBI took down the botnet, it arranged to have the Internet Systems Consortium put up good DNS servers in place of the ones that were redirecting people into bad sites. This way those who had been infected would still be connected to the Internet. And, of course, so they could get fresh anti-virus software to clean up the bug and find out how to reset their DNS. Most people did. A lot of people didn’t.

The FBI wants to shut down its servers for those who never bothered to clean up their systems. Originally the Feds were going to shut down the replacement servers in March, but last month a federal judge ordered an extension of the DNS services fix to July 9. This will give the clueless a few more months to give users, businesses and governments more time to deal with DNS Changer.

The clueless, by the way, aren’t just individuals who never patch their computers and haven’t updated their anti-virus software this decade. No, according to IID (Internet Identity), a provider of technology and services that help organizations secure their Internet presence,94 of all Fortune 500 companies and three out of 55 major government entities still had at least one computer or router that was infected with DNSChanger in March.

Is it any wonder that hardily a day goes by without news of yet another major Web site security breech?

To find out if you’re infected, visit the DNS Changer Check-Up site, which checks your PC’s DNS resolution without installing any software. If you do have a case, all modern, up-to-date anti-virus programs can remove DNSChanger.

After zapping it, you may still need to change your router’s DNS settings if the bug got to it. To do this varies from router to router. Just follow your vendor’s instructions. You can either choose to use your ISP’s default DNS servers or, do like I do, and use the OpenDNS DNS servers, 208.67.222.222 and 208.67.220.220, or Google’s DNS servers, 8.8.8.8 and8.8.4.4. Either tend to be faster than most ISP’s DNS services.

Related Stories:

FBI shutters $14m major click-jacking fraud; 4 million computers affected

The malware numbers game: how many viruses are out there?

Kaspersky: Apple ‘10 years behind Microsoft in terms of security’

Huge Twitter spam campaign for fake antivirus discovered

Anonymous wants to take down the Great Firewall of China

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Two free Mac antivirus apps compared – CNET

April 26th, 2012 | Author: admin

Recent malware attacks targeting Macs haven't tarnished the machine's reputation as the safer alternative to a Windows PC. But for many Mac users, the Flashback Trojan has dispelled the myth of Mac invulnerability.

The most recent Java-based iteration of Flashback appears to be easy to catch: just visit the wrong Web page and your machine's infected, as Josh Lowenstein describes in his Flashback FAQ.

Josh's FAQ explains that Flashback's creators may have exploited Apple's go-it-alone strategy. Apple refuses to preinstall Adobe's Flash player, so Mac users are prompted to download and install the plug-in when they encounter a Web site that uses Flash. The initial release of Flashback mimicked Adobe's Flash installer.

Likewise, the company's decision to release its own Java patches rather than rely on Oracle's public release may have helped spread the later Java-based version of Flashback: by last February Oracle had patched the Java vulnerability leveraged by Flashback, but Apple didn't get around to plugging the hole until this month.

Tools for detecting and removing Flashback
Apple's Flashback malware removal tool is recommended for Mac OS X Lion without the Java runtime environment installed. Alternatively, F-Secure's free Flashback Removal Tool works with earlier versions of Mac OS X and alerts you to the results of its scan; Apple's tool does nothing unless its scan finds Flashback.

F-Secure's Flashback Removal Tool gives you the all-clear after it scans your Mac for the Flashback Trojan.

Topher Kessler explains on the MacFixIt blog how to disable Java on a Mac. Since Java isn't installed by default with OS X Lion, you may be prompted to install the Java runtime when you attempt to open Java Preferences in the Applications/Utilities folder.

To disable Java in the Safari browser, click Safari > Preferences > Security and uncheck Enable Java.

Safari Preferences dialog Security options

Disable Java in the Safari browser by opening the Preferences dialog and unchecking Enable Java under the Security tab.

In Firefox, disable Java by clicking Tools > Add-ons > Plug-ins and choosing the Disable button for the Java plug-in. To do the same in Chrome, enter chrome://plugins in the browser's address bar and press Enter. Click Disable under the entry for the Java plug-in.

Prepare for the next Mac malware attack by installing free AV software
The silver lining of the Flashback outbreak is the need for real-time virus protection for Macs. Two popular antivirus programs for OS X are Mark Allan's ClamXav donationware and the free Sophos Anti-Virus for Mac Home Edition.

Both programs feature automatic updates of their malware definitions, real-time virus protection, and scheduled scans. They can be set to quarantine or remove the threats they detect, and they add a scan-this-file option to the Mac's contextual menu.

Either of the two antivirus apps will provide all the malware protection a Mac user needs, although Sophos Anti-Virus's clean and polished interface gives it an edge over ClamXav.

To start ClamXav, click its icon in the menu bar. Before your first scan, choose the Updated Definitions button. (The program's Preferences options let you update the definition database automatically when the app opens.)

Click the plus button at the bottom of the source pane on the left and choose the item you want to scan, or simply drag the file or folder you want to scan into the source pane. Click the Start Scan button in the top-left corner of the window. The scan progress is shown in the bottom pane, and detected items are listed in the top window.

The ClamXav scanner shows detected items in the main window, a scan summary in the bottom window, and the scanned items in the left pane.

The 27 suspicious items ClamXav identified on my test Mac were all from Gmail's spam folder, which I had inadvertently imported to the Mac mail app. ClamXav will only quarantine the items after you have selected the option under Quarantine in the Preferences dialog.

ClamXav Preferences dialog quarantine options

Set the quarantine folder for the suspicious items identified by ClamXav via the program's Preferences dialog.

Other options in Preferences let you exclude files from scans, schedule scans, and set the program's real-time Sentry feature to scan inserted discs automatically.

Sophos Anti-Virus also places an icon in the menu bar; start by clicking the icon choosing either Scan Local Drives or Open Sophos Anti-Virus and then the Scan Now button. Select either "Scan with current privileges" or "Scan all" and enter your password.

When the scan completes the results are shown in the small Sophos window. Click the Quarantine Manager button to view more details.

Sophos Anti-Virus for the Mac scan-results window

The simple Sophos scan-results window shows the number of items detected by the scan.

Access Sophos Anit-Virus's settings by clicking the menu bar icon and choosing Open Preferences, or click Sophos Anti-Virus > Preferences on the main menu. You can clean up, move, or delete detected items via the options under Scan Local Drives. Other settings let you activate the on-access scanner, enable the Live Protection feature, and view or clear the log file.

Sophos Anti-Virus for the Mac Preferences dialog

View a detailed log of the Sophos scan by clicking the View Log button in the program's Preferences dialog.

ClamXav and Sophos Anti-Virus for the Mac have similar features and worked about the same when I tested the programs, although ClamXav crashed in mid-scan on a couple of occasions. I also found the Sophos design easier to use, but either program will help you lock down your Mac without getting in the way of your work.

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Mac virus hits campus – Yale Daily News

April 26th, 2012 | Author: admin

A computer virus that affects Mac operating systems has spread to Yale’s campus after infecting over 600,000 computers across the world.

Roughly 50 students have reported to Information Technology Services that their computers have the Flashback virus, which can go undetected while stealing personal information such as passwords and credit card information saved in files, said Adam Bray, assistant manager for the Student Technology Collaborative. Bray said students can help protect themselves against the virus by installing anti-virus software available on the ITS website, and students can enlist the support of student techs to remove the virus if their computers are already infected.

“Once a computer has been infected, the virus hijacks certain web browsers, and silently runs a program in the background,” Bray said. “This allows the application to monitor web browsing, capture passwords and other sensitive information, and send this information back to remote servers.”

The virus enters computer systems though a variety pathways, such as corrupted websites that have Java applets or by posing as an update installer for Adobe Flash Player, Bray said, adding that in some cases the virus does not need owners to enter their administrative passwords in order to infiltrate the systems.

Macs running on the latest updates for Mac operating systems — Mac OS X Snow Leopard 10.6 or 10.7 Lion — are immune to the virus, Bray said, but users who contracted the virus before installing the update can remove the virus through the Apple Flashback Malware removal tool on Apple’s support site. Students can check whether their computers have the virus by visiting Flashbackcheck.com, according to a campus-wide email about the virus sent on April 11 by ITS.

But computers that are running on Mac versions 10.5 or earlier need to install an anti-virus utility such as Symantec Endpoint Protection, which is available for free at the Yale Software Library on ITS’s website.

Lesya Chopivsky ’15, whose laptop was affected by the virus, said she took her computer to student techs to be checked and found out her computer had been infected. She had initially decided not to install anti-virus software because of Mac’s strong reputation of protection against viruses, she said, and she has already changed her passwords and may call her credit card companies to make sure there has not been any irregular activity. She added that she was asked by ITS not to use the YaleSecure network as a precautionary measure until the virus was removed, a process that took her about one day.

Bray said the number of students requesting computer support has spiked in recent weeks, but that the end of academic terms are normally busy for student techs since students want to avoid computer trouble during finals period.

“Students choose these times to bring problems to us that may have been occurring for a while, but not serious enough to warrant concern until the computer is more important to the student academically,” he said.

The Flashback virus was first discovered last September.

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DNS Changer Virus: FBI Removal Tips & How To Check If You’ve Got Malware – Z6Mag

April 25th, 2012 | Author: admin

People are starting to pay attention to the information about the DNSChanger Virus that has infected hundreds of thousands of systems in the United States and around the world. There could be up to 4 million infected hosts throughout the world.

On July 9th, 2012 if you haven’t checked your system for the DNS Changer Virus and you have it, you will not be able to use the Internet. The effected systems are Windows or Mac systems. This means that if you access the Internet from an iOS device, Linux or from an Android OS device you’re good to go and are not infected.

So why won’t your computer be able to access the Internet if you have the DNS Changer Malware? Your DNS settings are changed by the virus rerouting you to hijacked servers that serve ads from the hackers that have amassed millions in ad dollars. The FBI took over these hijacked servers and have started making people’s computers infected by the virus go to destinations without ads.

The government can’t afford to continue to operate all of these servers so they’re turning them off on July 9th, 2012 and at that point infected computers will be trying to access a server that doesn’t exist.

So let’s get the DNS Changer Virus removed from your system. We have provided some videos below to walk you through how to get it removed from your system as well as resources from the FBI Removal page that describes what actions you can take.

The information on the FBI page that is called Check To See if Your Computer is Using a Rogue DNS states:

“The FBI is seeking information from individuals, corporate entities, and Internet Services Providers who believe that they have been victimized by malicious software (“malware”) related to the defendants. This malware modifies a computer’s Domain Name Service (DNS) settings and thereby directs the computers to receive potentially improper results from rogue DNS servers hosted by the defendants.

If you believe you have been victimized in this case, please type your DNS information into the search box below.

Information on how to determine your DNS settings, along with other technical details about DNSChanger, can be found at www.fbi.gov/news/stories/2011/november/malware_110911/dns-changer-malware.pdf.”

The easiest way to check if you’ve got the DNSChanger Malware is to go to:

http://www.dns-ok.us

If you see a screen that looks like our above graphic you are good to go. You should still probably get some anti-virus software and malware removal software to remove any spy programs or hidden trojans on your PC. When issues like the DNS Changer virus come up it’s always a good reminder to make sure you’re protected and your computer is safe from hackers.

There are popular products that will protect your computer all the time from viruses, trojans, spy programs and a lot more. Some of the best rated products are created by companies like Kaspersky and Norton. Kaspersky Internet Security 2012 and Norton Internet Security 2012 are quick to download and will provide you with premium protection from just about anything you might run into.

We’ve also provided a video below of how to remove the DNSChanger Virus with free software and removal tools:

How to Remove The Trojan.DNSChanger Virus?

This video provides instruction on how to remove the Trojan.DNSChanger virus.

A popular comment on this video also mentioned this: “I use Spybot – search and destroy, it’s free and i haven’t had any problems because it takes care of any spyware/malware that infects my computer without me knowing. (Microsoft security Essentials is also an excellent free antivirus)”

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DNS Changer Virus: FBI Removal Tips & How To Check If You've Got Malware, 5.0 out of 5 based on 2 ratings

Tags: DNS Changer Malware, FBI to shut down DNS Servers, how to remove the DNSChanger Virus, Trojan DNS Changer

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Beware of the gift horse – Sydney Morning Herald

April 25th, 2012 | Author: admin

Mac users are warned about Flashback malware, which can potentially steal passwords. Photo: Reuters

The Flashback trojan has breached Apple's lauded defences.

A MAJOR security scare has shattered the myth of the impenetrable Mac.

Mac users have long been comforted by Apple's impressive security record compared with the long-suffering heathens of the Windows world. This confidence comes across as arrogance at times but pragmatists on both sides have always known Macs were ''less vulnerable'' rather than ''invulnerable''. Apple has managed to keep hackers from its gates for many years but it was only a matter of time before the defences were breached.

The day of reckoning has come for Mac users in the form of the Flashback virus. It has reportedly snuck on to more than half-a-million Macs around the world, including more than 40,000 in Australia. It is not the first Mac security incident but it is the most significant.

There are several variations of Flashback, which initially masqueraded as an update to the Adobe Flash plug-in. It is a classic trojan malware trick of which the ancient Greeks would have been proud. Just like the soldiers hidden within the fabled wooden horse, Flashback opens the gates for the bad guys to plunder Macs.

Flashback is actually malicious software with the potential to steal passwords and other information. It can also take control of your infected Mac and use it as part of further attacks. Flashback has been ''improved'' by hackers to the point where it can quietly install itself behind the scenes - all you need to do is visit an infected webpage.

The most virulent version of Flashback generally finds its way on to Macs by exploiting a weakness in Java. This is a third-party plug-in developed by Sun Microsystems (since swallowed by Oracle) that adds capabilities to Macs, Windows or other devices. Some will argue that the flaw is with Java and not the Mac OS, thus Apple's reputation remains untarnished. But splitting hairs does not change the fact Flashback was targeted specifically at Mac users and it hit the mark.

In Apple's defence, it does not install Java by default on Mac OS 10.7 Lion. But some Lion users will still have it installed, as will Mac users running older versions such as Snow Leopard 10.6. The situation is complicated by the fact Apple maintains its own version of Java for Macs. In February, Oracle fixed the Java weakness that Flashback exploits but Apple did not get around to fixing its version of Java for Macs until April.

So how do you protect yourself against Flashback? The easiest option is to run Apple's Software Update - you will find it by clicking on the Apple logo at the top left of your desktop. This offers Lion and Snow Leopard users a Java update that removes Flashback and fixes the underlying vulnerability. There is also an update for Lion users who do not run Java - tinyurl.com/chmt3hm - just in case Flashback found another way to sneak on to their computer.

Unfortunately, there is no fix for Java from Apple if your Mac still runs Mac OS 10.5 Leopard or an earlier version (which is reportedly about 20 per cent of Macs). Apple's blunt advice is to simply disable Java in your browser - tinyurl.com/7jqtpjt - but Apple offers no help if you are already infected.

Java is becoming less common but you still might require it to access some websites and run some software. Disabling Java in your browser will not affect desktop applications, unless you go the extra step and disable it in the Java Preferences utility. If you are disabling Java in your browser, do not also disable JavaScript. They are not the same thing and many websites rely on JavaScript.

If you are reliant on a website that needs Java, you will need to weigh up your options - either find a new website, upgrade to a newer version of Mac OS, or take the risk and enable Java when you need it.

What if you are not running Lion or Snow Leopard? How do you know if you are already infected with Flashback and what can you do about it? Apple has left you in the lurch and its only advice is, ''upgrade to Lion''. If you are in this boat, one option is to run F-Secure's Flashback removal tool. Once you are sure you are clean of Flashback, you should take the appropriate Java precautions to prevent future infections.

Flashback is not the first Mac security threat but it should be the one that makes Mac users sit up and pay attention.

Rather than simply running F-Secure's Flashback removal tool, Mac users should consider a full Mac security suite. Other Mac viruses have already emerged to exploit the same Java flaw and you can be sure they will not be the last to target Macs.

You will find free Mac anti-virus software from Sophos, along with paid Mac security suites from the likes of Norton, Kaspersky and BitDefender.

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