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A Worm In The APPLE ???
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| Stilez |
| quote: | For years, Microsoft’s Windows has been the target of hackers, crackers and just plain haters of Bill Gates, who have created countless viruses that attack users’ machines and cost businesses billions of dollars in lost time, productivity and data.
And for just as many years, Apple Computer aficionados watched them battle these online menaces from the sidelines.
But now anti-virus companies are warning they’ve discovered the first new worm specifically targeting only the company’s operating system.
It’s called OSX/Leap-A and as nasty code goes, it’s not much of a threat.
The worm spreads through Apple’s iChat instant messaging program and sends itself to all contacts on an infected users’ ‘buddy list’ through a picture file named “latestpics.tqz”.
But it requires users to go through several steps to actually trigger it, and most experts believe sophisticated Apple users will easily catch it before it comes to that.
Still, they believe the fact that it’s been found at all is significant.
“This first Macintosh OS X threat is an example of the continuing spread of malicious code on to other platforms," warns Vincent Weafer of anti-virus firm Symantec Security Response.
But while notoriously loyal Apple defenders have argued the anti-virus companies have a vested interested in spreading overly alarming warnings as a means to spur sales, the firms involved disagree.
“Some owners of Mac computers have held the belief that Mac OS X is incapable of harbouring computer viruses, but Leap-A will leave them shellshocked, as it shows that the malware threat on Mac OS X is real," protests Graham Cluley of the infection fighting firm Sophos.
"Mac users shouldn't think it's okay to lie back and not worry about viruses."
Apple insists that this isn’t a real virus, and calls it “malicious software” instead.
It notes the program only affects version 10.4 of its OS/X and suggests users only accept files from people they trust, good advice in any case.
Meanwhile, as hackers apparently target Apple, Apple is also targeting them. And in typically wry company fashion, it’s fighting back with a poem.
Yes, a poem.
In the accurate assumption that thieves would try to swipe its OS X system, its creators left them a little verse embedded on the chip.
It’s been there since last January but when a hacker stumbled on it this week, it immediately became new folklore on the Internet.
It reads:
"Your karma check for today:
There once was a user that whined
His existing OS was so blind
He'd do better to pirate
An OS that ran great
But found his hardware declined.
Please don't steal Mac OS!
Really, that's way uncool.
(C) Apple Computer, Inc."
"We can confirm that this text is built into our products," Apple notes in a statement. "Hopefully it, and many other legal warnings, will remind people that they should not steal Mac OS X."
Pirating software and operating systems is a multi-billion dollar problem for tech firms worldwide. And not even Apple is immune to that.
February 17, 2006
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| NuERA |
| with so much attention on apple these days it was only a matter of time before the viruses and start happening :( |
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| VERTiG0 |
Hahah, we've been joking about this for a while around here, and it's funny because you know, Apple, core, Intel Core Duo... Even with that fancypants do-not-execute crap built into the hardware, it's still an issue though.
Unfortunately as well, The OS X on x86 Project was served with a DCMA cease & desist today and as such has shut down to revamp.
Apple will soon lose its niche market, just you watch. Perhaps they jumped the gun with the switch to x86 architecture - many Apple pundits are saying they'll regret that when IBM's early-dev CELL processors are already kicking the living out of anything out there, and are "20 times" faster than any G5 setup. |
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| infinity HiGH |
^^^
really? cause i've heard that CELL isn't really living up to its hype thus far |
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