Apple Quietly Goes After Mac Trojan With Update

Th'Inquisitor was one of several readers to point out coverage of Apple's stealth security fix, included along with the recent Snow Leopard 10.6.4 update. Graham Cluley of Sophos first noticed the update to protect Mac computers from a Trojan, and the fact that Apple didn't mention it in the release notes. The malware opens a back door to a Mac that can allow attackers to gain control of the machine and snoop about on it or turn it into a zombie. "You have to wonder," writes Cluley, "whether their keeping quiet about an anti-malware security update like this was for marketing reasons." While he certainly has a point that Apple benefits by its users' belief that the platform is secure, you also have to wonder whether any such publicity from a security company has a marketing subtext, as well.

Comments

Re:If they're trying to keep it secret

[phantomfive]

Hiding it makes a lot of sense if you don't want to look bad,

It's really hard for me to believe that's the reason they did it, given the number of ugly things they did announce, including a few bugs that give complete control of the computer just by opening a web page. They could have added a line about updating malware signatures, and if they worded it right, avoided the bad press (I mean, it's not like it's the first time there has been a trojan for OSX).

It is more likely that the internal communication processes at Apple got mixed up, and the people in charge of updating the malware signatures haven't gotten in contact with the people in charge of writing the release notes. I don't think that is an uncommon thing in large (and even small) companies.