Over the past few weeks, we have heard from many different companies who have stated that they have been hacked by foreign entities. If you are keeping a list at home of the companies who have been infiltrated, you can add Apple to that list.
While there is no indication in the report that China, or any other foreign body was involved, it is believed that the same group that attacked Facebook also targeted Apple.
Apple provided the following statement on the breach to Loopinsight:
Apple has identified malware which infected a limited number of Mac systems through a vulnerability in the Java plug-in for browsers,” Apple said in a statement the company provided to The Loop. “The malware was employed in an attack against Apple and other companies, and was spread through a website for software developers. We identified a small number of systems within Apple that were infected and isolated them from our network. There is no evidence that any data left Apple. We are working closely with law enforcement to find the source of the malware.
“Since OS X Lion, Macs have shipped without Java installed, and as an added security measure OS X automatically disables Java if it has been unused for 35 days. To protect Mac users that have installed Java, today we are releasing an updated Java malware removal tool that will check Mac systems and remove this malware if found.
The company has stated that a small number of computers were infected but that the threat has since been resolved. Apple also stated that there is no evidence that any information was stolen
There is little to go on about how the hackers were able to penetrate Apple’s security safeguards and Apple is reported to be working with law enforcement to track down the hackers. The breach occurred by infiltrating a small number of employee laptops but the attack must have been quickly stopped as all of Apple’s data remained safe.
Source: Reuters
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