What Does The Flashback Virus Do?

Recently, over 600,000 of the Mac users who live in English speaking countries around the globe have been infected by the Flashback virus. The virus targets a hole in the security within the Java which is installed on the Mac (which is included on the OS X). The virus was designed to steal personal information from your Mac (Bank details, passwords, etc.) without the user knowing that this is happening.

I've had experience with this infection because my Mac became infected with the Flashback virus. The way that this happened was that a Flash Player installation popped up onto my screen, and it looked completely legitimate. For this reason, I just carried on with the installation as normal instead of clicking the 'No' option. Only after I had installed this I received a text from my friend saying that I had been spamming him with e-mails, so I then researched on the web what was the cause of this, and it turned out that I had a varient of the Flashback virus.

I found that the best way to deal with this was to wait for the Java update that Apple were due to release 2 days after I had discovered that my Mac was infected, so I decided not to mess about in Terminal like multiple websites that I went on to suggested that I do. Gladly I can say that the wait paid off, and It seems as if none of my account details were stolen (Touch wood). If you have been affected by the Flashback virus, and you do not know what to do, click on the Apple icon on the top left hand corner of your screen, and then click on 'Software Update'. Once the bar has loaded, if you haven't already, there should be a Java update within the box, and then all you need to do is click 'Install'. After you have done this you should be in the all clear!