DHAKA: Apple Inc said it would issue a software update ‘very soon’ to cut off the ability of spies and hackers to grab email, financial information and other sensitive data from Mac computers.

Confirming researchers’ findings late Friday that a major security flaw in iPhones and iPads also appears in notebook and desktop machines running Mac OS X, Apple spokesman Trudy Muller told media, reports The Straits Times:

‘We are aware of this issue and already have a software fix that will be released very soon.’

Apple released a fix on Friday afternoon for the mobile devices running iOS, and most will update automatically. Once that fix came out, experts dissected it and saw the same fundamental issue in the operating system for Apple’s mainstream computers.

That started a race, as intelligence agencies and criminals will try to write programs that take advantage of the flaw on Macs before Apple pushes out the fix for them.

BDST: 1437 HRS, FEB 23, 2014