Technology
Apple Pushes Out First Automatic Security Update to Patch Critical Bugs
(Los Angeles Times) – Apple pushed out its first-ever automatic security update for Mac computers on Monday, fixing a security flaw that the company felt was too dangerous to wait for users to patch.
The security flaw was made public on Friday on security bulletins by the Department of Homeland Security and the Carnegie Mellon University Software Engineering Institute. Security researchers who discovered the bugs warned they could enable hackers to gain remote control of machines.
The security fix patches vulnerabilities in OS X’s network time protocol, or NTP, according to Apple spokesman Bill Evans. NTP is used for synchronizing clocks on computer systems.
“The update is seamless,” Evans said. “It doesn’t even require a restart.”