apple’s java update addresses flashback – and more

Apple has been getting some grief over the past week or so for their handling of the “FlashBack” trojan which infected over 500,000 Mac users worldwide.  Well, yesterday, they released a new Java patch to address Flashback, and it has some interesting properties:

It looks for and removes FlashBack

It requires users to specifically enable Java on their systems

It automatically disables Java if no Java applets are run for “an extended period” – some bloggers are stating that this period is 35 days.

I’m glad Apple is taking these steps – if users are not using Java, disabling it will protect them from the rising tide of Java based malware that is out there.  I just hope that the process for re-enabling Java when needed is made easy for the non technical user.  It would be nice if Apple added a feature to “Software Update” which would be a little more proactive in nagging users to install security related updates as well.

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