Apple Says Hackers Infected Employee Macs

Apple says a small number of employee Macs at its offices were infected by malicious software, in an attack similar to the one Facebook acknowledged last week. In both cases, computers were infected through software downloaded from a site for software developers. The attacks took advantage of flaws in Oracle's Java plug-in for Web browsers. Neither company thinks the attackers gleaned any data from the attacks.

The Java vulnerability is well-known, and Apple has taken measures to disable the plug-in on all Macs. It says it would release an update malware removal tool to remove infections. In January, the Department of Homeland Security recommended disabling Java in Web browsers to avoid hacking attacks. (More Apple stories.)