Apple has finally released a Mac software update to repair the massive security hole discovered last week that left users’ private data vulnerable to hacking. But this is an update that still leaves one out of every five Macs vulnerable.
The California innovator’s newest patch addresses a security flaw in the OS X versions 10.7, 10.8 and 10.9 that would allow hackers to steal unencrypted data from a users’ computer — including emails, login credentials and credit card information. Apple did not however release a security update for Mac OS X 10.6, popularly known as “Snow Leopard,” which still runs on 19 percent of all Macs, Computer World reports.
Apple does not make support policy announcements available to the public, and the lack of any update since September 2013, especially after last week’s security exposure, likely indicates that the developer has dropped support for the firmware altogether. The company is likely shifting focus to new OS iterations, which Apple announced will begin to flow annually.
The company has not provided any comment on it’s lack of support for the popular operating system after releasing the patch to fix the Secure Sockets Layer encryption flaw in subsequent systems. In its public announcement of the flaw last Friday, that was initially discovered within iPhones and iPads, Apple did not reveal how long the bug has been present in its systems.