Security firm Kaspersky issued a statement on Monday saying that comments claiming that Apple had asked the firm for security help were taken out of context. It would appear, however, that Kaspersky overstated the situation, and that Nikolay Grebennikov, the company’s Chief Technology Officer, misspoke, and that the clarification is really a correction.

Apple released Safari 5.1.7 for Snow Leopard, Lion, and Windows on Tuesday, an update that includes several bug fixes for the browser. For Mac users, it also disables out-of-date installs of Adobe’s Flash that don’t include the latest security patches for the multimedia software.

Apple updated Apple Remote Desktop for both Lion and Snow Leopard on Tuesday. Apple Remote Desktop 3.5.3 is a maintenance release for OS X Lion 10.7.4 and for Security Update 2012-002 for Snow Leopard, both of which were also released on Tuesday.

Apple Mail has an interesting preference that can help prevent you from accidentally sending a private e-mail to the wrong person. It’s especially useful in offices where you might need to exchange company info between co-workers without risking that data getting out through carelessness. Melissa Holt can’t help you with deliberate acts of corporate espionage, but she might be able to keep you from copying your Uncle Martin in by accident. After all, the less he knows, the better.

Following the end of Apple’s support for Java in OS X in October 2010, Java developer Oracle announced on Friday the release of Java SE 7 Update 4 and JavaFX 2.1. The tools represent the first Java development kits available for the OS X platform and lay the groundwork for future Oracle support of consumer-based Java in OS X.

Apple has started offering at least some MobileMe users that haven’t moved to Snow Leopard yet free copies of the operating system to cut down on their upgrade costs to Lion ahead of their transition to iCloud. Lion is required for iCloud, so by giving Leopard users a free upgrade to Snow Leopard, Apple is saving customers US$30 off the cost of migrating to Lion.

Apple’s recent Java updates address the security issues that led to the Flashback trojan outbreak and now LuckyCat, too. If you aren’t running OS X 10.6 or higher, however, there aren’t any security updates available. Disabling Java will stop hackers from taking advantage of those unpatched flaws, and it only takes a couple steps.

Apple released Java for OS X 2012-003 Thursday afternoon, a software update that removes “the most common variants of the Flashback malware.” It is available now from Software Update and is highly recommended for all users of Mac OS X 10.7 Lion and 10.6 Snow Leopard.

The number of Macs infected with the Flashback malware has fallen rapidly in the last few days. Antivirus firm Symantec reported on Wednesday that its data shows that the number of infected Macs has declined from some 600,000 on April 5th to 270,000 on April 11th.

Got lots of images outside of your iPhoto Library? Want to be able to see the entire contents of any folder at once? Have we got the tip for you. Using Quick Look’s Index Sheet function, you can see everything you have and find just what you’re looking for, without even having to open a program. It’s as easy as falling off a log. A really tiny, misshapen log, even.