April 6th, 2012
(via Half-million Mac infection estimate backed by new analysis | Ars Technica) This map shows that Macs in the US are the hardest hit by the Flashback malware, followed by Canada, the UK, Australia, France, and Italy. A second security firm took a shot at estimating how many Macs are infected by the Flashback malware and it arrived at the same conclusion as the first—more than half a million machines. That figure, documented in a Kaspersky Lab blog post published on Friday, would mean Flashback has infected slightly more than 1 percent of the 45 million Macs in existence… Ars has a detailed tutorial here showing how to detect and remove the malware….

(via Half-million Mac infection estimate backed by new analysis | Ars Technica)

This map shows that Macs in the US are the hardest hit by the Flashback malware, followed by Canada, the UK, Australia, France, and Italy.

A second security firm took a shot at estimating how many Macs are infected by the Flashback malware and it arrived at the same conclusion as the first—more than half a million machines. That figure, documented in a Kaspersky Lab blog post published on Friday, would mean Flashback has infected slightly more than 1 percent of the 45 million Macs in existence…

Ars has a detailed tutorial here showing how to detect and remove the malware….

7 notes Source: Ars Technica #Half-million#Mac#infection#analysis#security#apple#Ars Technica#flashback#malware#Kaspersky
February 22nd, 2012
(via Queensland Koalas Hit by Chlamydia Infections - NYTimes.com) Faced with habitat loss, climate change and bacterial disease, koalas are being pushed into smaller and smaller regions of the country. In Queensland, the vast state in Australia’s northeastern corner, surveys suggest that from 2001 to 2008, their numbers dropped as much as 45 percent in urban areas and 15 percent in bushland. And while climate change and habitat loss are affecting many other uniquely Australian animals, too — from birds and frogs to marsupials like wombats, wallabies and bandicoots — it is a bacterial infection that is worrying many scientists about the fate of the koala. “Disease is a somewhat silent killer and has the very real potential to finish koala populations in Queensland,” said Dr. Amber Gillett, a veterinarian at the Australia Zoo Wildlife Hospital in Beerwah, Queensland. The killer is chlamydia, a class of bacteria far better known for causing venereal disease in humans than for devastating koala populations. Recent surveys in Queensland show that chlamydia has caused symptoms in up to 50 percent of the state’s wild koalas, with probably even more infected but not showing symptoms. The bacteria — transmitted during birth, through mating and possibly through fighting — come in  two different strains, neither the same as the human form. The first, Chlamydia pecorum, is causing a vast majority of health problems in Queensland’s koalas; the second, C. pneumoniae, is less common… [nooo…although the headline IS charmingly alliterative…]

(via Queensland Koalas Hit by Chlamydia Infections - NYTimes.com)

Faced with habitat loss, climate change and bacterial disease, koalas are being pushed into smaller and smaller regions of the country. In Queensland, the vast state in Australia’s northeastern corner, surveys suggest that from 2001 to 2008, their numbers dropped as much as 45 percent in urban areas and 15 percent in bushland.

And while climate change and habitat loss are affecting many other uniquely Australian animals, too — from birds and frogs to marsupials like wombats, wallabies and bandicoots — it is a bacterial infection that is worrying many scientists about the fate of the koala.

“Disease is a somewhat silent killer and has the very real potential to finish koala populations in Queensland,” said Dr. Amber Gillett, a veterinarian at the Australia Zoo Wildlife Hospital in Beerwah, Queensland.

The killer is chlamydia, a class of bacteria far better known for causing venereal disease in humans than for devastating koala populations. Recent surveys in Queensland show that chlamydia has caused symptoms in up to 50 percent of the state’s wild koalas, with probably even more infected but not showing symptoms.

The bacteria — transmitted during birth, through mating and possibly through fighting — come in  two different strains, neither the same as the human form. The first, Chlamydia pecorum, is causing a vast majority of health problems in Queensland’s koalas; the second, C. pneumoniae, is less common…

[nooo…although the headline IS charmingly alliterative…]

8 notes Source: The New York Times #Queensland#Koalas#Chlamydia#Infection#threat#wildlife#nature#NYTimes