Bummer Dude... That's a Bad Flashback.k

Seriously, there's a malicious little Trojan going around the Mac world. It's known as Flashback.k

If you don't yet have it, the official word seems to be to disable Java in your browsers, until Apple publishes a patch. To do this in Safari go to the "Safari Menu," choose "Preferences..." and then select the "Security" tab and uncheck (if checked) the "Enable Java" box.

In Firefox, it's "Tools," "Add-ons," then choose the "plug-ins" tab and look for "Java Plug-in" and disable it.

But, Mr. Handyman, how do I know if I have it?

Fire up the Terminal application, found in your Utilities folder, paste in the following:

defaults read /Applications/Safari.app/Contents/Info LSEnvironment (and hit Return)

The answer you hope to get is "The domain/default pair of (/Applications/Safari.app/Contents/Info, LSEnvironment) does not exist"

Then paste in the following:

defaults read /Applications/Firefox.app/Contents/Info LSEnvironment

The answer you hope to get is "The domain/default pair of (/Applications/Firefox.app/Contents/Info, LSEnvironment) does not exist"

If you got anything else, Bummer, Dude. You've got Flashback.k. There's a fairly complicated explanation about how to get rid of it, found here. Do ALL of that, and then change all your Internet passwords, starting with Banks and Credit Cards.

Or call me. I can help.