although Macs are regularly advertised as safe from viruses that commonly plague PC users, employees of Northwestern’s Apple store are keeping an eye out for a virus that recently affected about half a million Mac users.

according to a Russian anti-virus vendor, Doctor Web, over 550,000 machines were infected by a variant of the Flashback Trojan virus, particularly in the United States and Canada. Technology magazine Macworld reported April 6 that Flashback first appeared in 2011, disguising itself as an installer for Adobe Flash. The new version of the virus infecting Macs is a “drive-by download.” It installs itself using a Java vulnerability without the user clicking anything.

So far, the virus seems to have little effect on campus. Dan Wilcox, who works in technical support at the Apple store in Norris University Center Bookstore, said he has not seen any students come in with the virus affecting their computers. he has worked every day since news of the virus made headlines.  

“I was really surprised,” Wilcox said. “When I read about the virus, I expected a lot of students to come in with it, but so far no one has.”

at least one professor warned her students about the virus. Medill freshman Marianna Cooper said Prof. Cassandra West emailed the students in her class an article about the virus.

“I’m usually careful to watch out for pop-up ads that look suspicious, but apparently it’s difficult to tell that this is a virus,” Cooper said. “It’s stressful to think it could infect my computer.”

Students can easily protect themselves from the virus, Wilcox said.

“Run updates,” he said. “There has already been an update that will prevent or repair any problems.”

Apple released the software update on April 3. It is available through Apple’s website.

an article in Macworld said the update will repair the vulnerabilites in Java that the Trojan was infiltrating and other Java-related security holes.

Wilcox said installing the update could be a quick fix to many computer problems students experience.

“When someone comes in with a problem, the first thing we do is update the software,” Wilcox said. “Often, problems that seem like hardware-related problems are actually related to software updates, including firmwire updates.”

The Apple store is not expecting a change in sales due to the virus.

“Really, viruses affect Macs maybe once a year, and Apple always releases a software update quickly to fix it,” Wilcox said. “Comparatively, it’s a non-issue.”

catherinezakrzewski2015@u.northwestern.edu

Northwestern’s Apple Store aware of new Mac virus

Being a low-end Mac user gives you little experience of the shinynew world of Macs and essentially the Apple Store. I have peeredthrough the window of the recently opened local store, drooling overall the latest Apple gear inside.

If you use an older Mac, chances are you are morethan used to scratches, dents, and cracks. It is something we have tolive with. In fact, for the financially constrained Mac users who don’tmind a bit of wear and tear, it is an excellent way to grab a bargainmachine.

Cracked plastic on the left…

I recently picked up an Early 2009 MacBook, low-end tomost, but it is the fastest Mac I have ever owned. It was fullyworking, but it had some cracked plastics around the edges of the topcasing. This brought the price down a little, as some people do notlike cosmetically damaged machines.

After purchasing it and talking to a few Mac friends, they told methis was a known fault and should be covered by Apple’s extendedguarantee service. After booking an appointment at my local Genius Bar(Chapelfield Shopping Centre, Norwich, UK), I took it in. I wasn’t veryhopeful.

…and on the right.

I walked in, in awe of all the latest Apple gadgets, the thousandsof Apple locals, and just beamed at being in the presence of so manyMac fans.

I booked in and sat at the Genius Bar awaiting my Apple Genius totake a look. my appointment was at 10:40 a.m. Within a few minutes avery friendly chap named Andy took a look, knew exactly what the causewas, and confirmed this was a heat dissipation problem that was coveredby an extended guarantee service – five years since it was released.

After taking a few details, my MacBook was booked in and taken away.I was told it could take five days, but as the parts were in and it wasa fairly easy job, it should be quicker than that, and I would becontacted when ready.

I then had a few unrelated questions regarding 32-bit and 64-bitkernels, which he was more than happy to answer, even if he didn’t havethe exact answer to hand.

All sorted, I was out within half-an-hour (minus my MacBook) and onmy way home. I received a call from Andy at around 4:30 p.m. on thesame day to say it was all done and ready for collection. He had alsodone some further digging about Snow Leopard 32-bit/64-bit kernelissues and said he was fairly sure (although not 100%) that my MacBookbeing unable to boot a 64-bit kernel it is a Mac OS X 10.6 Snow Leopardlimitation that should be overcome in OS X 10.7 Lion.

I was unable to pick it up until today, so I headed down there firstthing this morning. I walked into the Apple Store, explained I was hereto pick up my MacBook, and within a few minutes the gentleman (not Andythis time, as he was busy) brought it out, opened it up, and showed methe work they had performed. They had replaced the whole top casing,giving me a new keyboard and trackpad too, as well what looks like anew screen bezel.

After Apple’s repair, the MacBook has a new keyboard and trackpadtoo.

After feeling pretty screwed over by Apple in the past few years andwatching their fast turnover and blatant disregard for those with olderMacs, this has lifted my mood and respect for them.

A big heads up to the Apple Store in Norwich, UK, as well as thevery friendly and patient service from Andy and the other gentleman whoassisted me today (although I didn’t catch his name).

My Experience with the Local Apple Store

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