(By Balaseshan) Apple Inc. (NASDAQ: AAPL) has been reportedly been attacked by hackers who infected the Macintosh computer of certain employees with malicious software, similar to the one that hit Facebook Inc. (NASDAQ: FB) last week.
The malware had been designed to attack Mac computers by exploiting a flaw in a version of Oracle Corp.'s (NASDAQ: ORCL) Java software used as a plug-in on Web browsers, the company said in a statement provided to Reuters.
"We identified a small number of systems within Apple that were infected and isolated them from our network. There is no evidence that any data left Apple. We are working closely with law enforcement to find the source of the malware," Reuters reported quoting Apple's statement.
Apple intends to release a software on Tuesday, which it said customers can use to identify and repair Macs infected with the malware used in the attacks, the Reuters report quoted Apple as saying.
On Friday, Facebook disclosed that the social-networking site was also the victim of a malware attack last month many of which have been traced to China. It said the attack occured when its employees visited a mobile developer website that was infected.
"As soon as we discovered the presence of the malware, we remediated all infected machines, informed law enforcement, and began a significant investigation that continues to this day. We have no evidence that Facebook user data was compromised in this attack," Facebook said in its official blog.
AAPL closed 0.04% lower at $459.99 on Tuesday, while FB ended up 2.26% at $28.96.