April 2012

MAUS Meeting – April 2012

Wednesday, April 18, 2012, 6:00 – 8:00 PM
At Maui College (Laulima Rm. 211)

Topic: The Popularity of Apple and the Impact on Users.

Whether breakfast television is reporting on the malware trojan, getting excited about working conditions in FoxConn or over heating iPads …. there is no doubt that there has been a flurry of recent media activity about and around Apple because Apple is no longer that funky little company out of Cupertino. Instead it is the largest corporation – by Market Cap – on the planet. So suddently people are taking notice. We can talk about that – but the question is – what does it mean to us – the users. What is the impact ?

  • We are no longer a minority – what does that do to the fanboy image mentality ?
  • Here come the ‘Virus’ panic – how to handle. Is it because of popularity ?
  • Should you not buy an iPad because it ‘overheats’ ?
  • Who DO you listen to for accurate information ?
  • Where is Apple going with these products and the logic of Mountain Lion ?

Come along with your questions and lets explore how much is media hype and how much is real – and what can you and should you be doing about it.

As always we will save time for questions and answers – so bring them all and directions to our meeting can be found here.

By MAUS Administrator, ago

Apple – Malware – The Truth and The Fix

You might have picked up some news this morning about malware and viruses and trojans INVADING the quiet tranquility of your Apple computer.

Personal opinion ? Like som much of news – massive exaggeration – and of course – because it is Apple – the bandwagon is in full flight about how the world is about to come to an end …..

It isn’t.

Really – It isn’t.

This article aside (I like Dave Winer a lot – and his point is valid), WITHOUT some calm and sense prevailing – the gap will be filled with rumor, myth and wrong information.

First – some data – I have no idea how many Apple computers there are in the world  – but only 600,000 of them have been affected.

There are however estimates of 900 million to 1 billion computers in the world today. So, even if Apple had a 10% of ALL of them (they don’t by a long shot) – that means there are around 100 million Apple computers

Which means that around 0.6 percent of ALL Apples are estimated to have the virus.

OK – so what is the virus ?

Here’s what are friends at F-Secure have to say :

Summary
Trojan-Downloader:OSX/Flashback.I connects to a remote site to download its payload; on successful infection, the malware modifies targeted webpages displayed in the web browser.

Think about that – IF you are one of the substantially less than .6% of Apple computer owners that have been affected – it will mean that the malware will modify certain webpages displayed in the web browser – when you visit them. It doesn’t corrupt your data, destroy your files, spam your address book. It is malware.

OK – but you still want to get rid of it right ?

If you are feeling brave go here – now.

If you are not feeling so brave – and not so technically minded – then still go here – (it is the same page) – and note the first three instructions :

Manual Removal Instructions

1. Run the following command in Terminal:defaults read /Applications/Safari.app/Contents/Info LSEnvironment
2. Take note of the value, DYLD_INSERT_LIBRARIES
3. Proceed to step 8if you got the following error message:”The domain/default pair of (/Applications/Safari.app/Contents/Info, LSEnvironment) does not exist”

For the vast majority of you – statistically 99.4 % of you – when you get that message “The domain/default pair of (/Applications/Safari.app/Contents/Info, LSEnvironment) does not exist” – then know you are safe.

If you don’t get that message – then the instructions 4 onwards – tells you what to do – and that can either be YOU or one of your friendly neighborhood techies :0

Please email me if I can help you further. I am traveling at the moment – but always online 🙂

By MAUS Administrator, ago