For many years, Apple computers had the reputation of being virus-free. Unfortunately, while Apple's computers and software are excellent, no computer is ever completely safe from viruses.

In fact, an estimated 550,000 Mac users were recently hit by a virus called Trojan BackDoor.Flashback, which affected computers running Max O.S. X, according to the Russian I-T security company, Doctor Web.

"The exploit saves an executable file onto the hard drive of the infected Mac machine," noted the company in an April 4 statement on its blog. "The file is used to download malicious payload from a remote server and to launch it."

To make matters worse, Mac users did not have to necessarily download a file or even interact with the malware to become infected. Rather, it was spread through websites that were not secure and possessed a Java flaw, which allowed the Flashback.K to download on its own. In some instances, the screen prompted users to input their passwords, but even if they didn't, the virus was installed.

While computer security experts estimate that only about 1 percent of all Mac computers were affected worldwide, nearly 57 percent of all those infected with the virus occurred in the U.S.

"It's obvious that every computer user, no matter if he uses Mac or Windows or Linux should have a security solution installed," Catalin Cosoi, Chief Security Researcher for Bitdefender told PC Magazine. "Mac users thought that they can practically do whatever they want on the internet, with no risks involved."

If you have a Macbook, Apple Macbook Air or other type of Apple computer and you think you may need virus removal or even the Flashback Trojan virus removal, contact your local laptop repair company today.