Mac Users: Update, Disable or Remove Your Java

We know that one of the big reasons your or your loved ones got a Mac is because you didn’t want to worry about viruses, malware or other technical time wasters. Unfortunately, the Mac Flashback trojan may have infected over 500,000 Apple computers and is attempting to use these computers to generate email spam and more.

F-Secure Labs has laid out the steps to detect and, if necessary, remove the trojan. Advanced users should do that now. Start at step 1.

To prevent further infections, F-Secure Labs recommends all Mac users update, disable or remove their Java client plugin/installation. (Windows users, too. Actually. But for once, we’ll make this post almost entirely about Mac malware.)

How to Update or Disable Your Java in Mac OSX

Update
1. Go to the Apple in the upper left-hand corner.

2. Select “Software Update” from the menu.
3. The program will check for new software.
4. Update all of your software including Java.

Disable

Snow Leopard (Lion doesn’t come with Java by default)
1. In Finder, go to “Applications” folder.
2. From “Applications” go to “Utilities” to “Java Preferences”.
3. Uncheck everything in the General tab.

Safari
1. Open Safari.
2. From the Safari menu, select “Security”.
3. Uncheck “Enable Java”.

Chrome
1. Input the address “chrome://plugins“ into Chrome’s address bar.
2. Scroll down to “Java”
3. Click “Disable” for any instance of Java you see.
4. Use the same procedure to start using Java again, just click “Enable”.

Cheers,

Jason