Warnings after 600,000 Macs infected with virus

The computer security industry buzzed with warnings that over 600,000 Macintosh computers may have been infected with a virus targeting Apple machines.

Flashback Trojan malware tailored to slip past Mac defences is a variation on viruses typically aimed at PCs powered by Microsoft’s Windows operating systems.

The infections, spotted “in the wild” by Finland-based computer security firm F-Secure and then quantified by Russian anti-virus programme vendor Dr Web, come as hackers increasingly take aim at Apple computers.