With all Apple fanboys touting the Mac as the most secure computer system ever to grace this planet, it is a wonder how hackers have managed to hit Apple Macintosh computers so hard a few days ago.
Apple issued a statement on Tuesday telling users that their system had been attacked by a group of very smart and efficient hackers who bypassed the company’s security network through a Java vulnerability they exploited with malware.
According to many security agencies, this attack is not uncommon and was used against Facebook just a month prior to this one. Nobody knows the exact source of the website, although Facebook tracked it to iPhoneDevSKD.com (would advise not checking that website).
Oracle’s Java has been exposed as a vulnerability time and time again, and now users are getting the worst of it with these huge hacks on systems. We expect more will be done by Oracle to stop this threat, although the code realistically needs to be rethought for a fully secure system.
This is one of the first really big attacks on Mac computers and hacking seems to be getting more common with Java faults. This isn’t Anonymous or nay sort of hacking group that relies on a cause, this seems to be genuine malware attackers with no motive other than gaining information.
Twitter, The Wall Street Journal and The New York Times have all been targets of hacking as well. This isn’t just groups of DDoS clients running, this is sophisticated hacking.
The BBC has commented on increased tensions between Washington D.C. and Beijing, claiming a group of well connected Chinese hackers with possible government clearance have been attacking companies systems.
This threat could be very real, considering the level of understanding and clearance these hackers have at their disposal. While nothing is certain yet, it can only get worst until this Java vulnerability is sorted out.