“Monday may be a very bad day, a security researcher said Friday as he warned that the aggressive Sober worm of early May is timed to download new code the first day of next workweek. Sober.p, the mass-mailed worm that spread voraciously by virtue of its offer of free World Cup tickets, is poised to launch another attack Monday, said Dmitri Alperovitch, a research engineer with an Alpharetta, Ga.-based security firm CipherTrust. ‘At the moment, the payload is unknown, but it may be another form of spam, like Sober.q; more malicious code, like another virus; or a denial-of-service attack,'” Gregg Keizer reports for TechWeb News.
Full article here.
MacDailyNews Take: Macintosh is unaffected. This is quite an ingenious and potentially very dangerous Sober variant as you can see from the full article. Windows users, there really is a better way – a much better way. Our Windows-only readers should consider adding a safe, secure, and powerful Mac OS X machine to their computing arsenals. For information about how to do so smoothly, please click here.
For inexpensive entry to the Mac platform, you might want to take a look at Apple’s new Mac Mini which starts at just US$499 — it just might be the perfect machine for you. And don’t forget to order it with 512MB RAM, you’ll want it.
Related MacDailyNews articles:
Microsoft Windows Sober.P worm shows ‘epidemic’ spread; Macintosh unaffected – May 03, 2005
Apple touts Mac OS X security advantages over Windows – April 13, 2005
97,467 Microsoft Windows viruses vs. zero for Apple Mac’s OS X – April 05, 2005
My advice.. play as much Half Life 2 as you can before your PC is unusable. After all, that’s what you got it for.
I just LOVE not having to worry about things like this!
[Me] Plans on kicking back in the shade on the beach with my ibook all day monday.
i love it when there are nice things said about apple computers. it makes my day.
i feel superior to people that own windows pcs.
Couldn’t happen to a nicer operating system.
MDN Magic Word: “develop” as in while I use Macs exclusively, I wish someone would still develop me an antidote so I don’t end up with 47 messages in my inbox that need to be deleted because some Windows-using jackass got himself infected.
create a rule to cover those email and BOUNCE
Ahhh, the feeling of working all day online, surfing, getting emails, connected 24/h and be as safe as a baby in a crib.
Windooooooozzeeeeeersss: DUCK TIME AGAIN!
Again and again and again
MDN Magic word: “cause”, as in ” ‘Cause being on Windows SUCKS! “
I wouldn’t necessarily say that Macs are completely unaffected. With all these zombie PeeCs out there I sometimes get up to 200 junk e-mails a day. I’ve also noticed a slowdown on my internet connection as of late. Using Tiger’s more easily accessed firewall log I discovered something interesting (and not a little terrifying). My firewall gets hammered by break-in attempts about every three to five minutes (all denied, of course). Using Traceroute on the addresses shows that the attacks are coming from all over the country.
M$ really, REALLY needs to get it’s act together. Macs at least stop the barbarians at the gate, but the mob keeps growing and growing and …
Scott
Scott, I had before Tiger added logging, a 3rd party firewall with full log of every attempt. Hundreds daily. Same now with Tiger builtin firewall: the log shows hundred attempts to probe every possible port.
One has to be absolutely ignorant and close to being stupid to even doubt that Macs are not infected by viruses because they are few (as few as 30 millions and over machine can be labeled as *few*).
As soon as a real virus was released on the wild, truly capable to infect OS X platforms it would spread like wild fire as in Windows. The only problem is that OS X (being BSDUnix) does not allow automatic reproduction and spreading. That is practically the only reason there are no viruses around: you may write them, they do exist, papers describing how-to’s exist but they all lack one ingredient: automatic reproduction and spread. Proof-of-conceps, academic curiosity but no virus.
If it does not spread all by itself it is not a virus, it is a joke.
MDN magic word “INDEED” as in ‘indeed’
Yeah, Monday will probably suck for Mac users too, as the entire Windows-based sector of the Internet, including all of the Windows-based DNS servers and routers and what-not, are crippled by Sober.
i laugh at all my pc owning friends!
my mac is the greatest!
i am so much smarter than a pc owner.
i wonder why they don´t see the light?
i wonder if it is a genetic thing – perhaps we 4% mac owners are the next evolution of humankind – we see the technology and understand that apple is the advanced way of working in the new age.
20,50, 100 years from now pc owners will be looked upon as we look upon neandrathals. just as neadrathals were not smart enough to avoid spoiled, rotten food with worms in it and probably helped them in their demise, so are pc owners unable to understand why they should avoid a computer with worms and viruses in it.
JESUS has a Mac with 4 million gigs of memory.
There are no viruses in Heaven.
No, Christ of Nazareth was a famous Rabbi born in 0 AD. He didn’t have a Mac. Or electricity. Or indoor plumbing. Or dental hygiene or a proper hairbrush or deodorant.
By the way, besides being the world’s most famous Jew, Jesus was a Middle Eastern left-wing radical pacifist who opposed the government and capitalist principles at every opportunity. It cracks me up that the right wing wackos are using his legacy to promote their imperialist agenda of ethnic cleansing and war profiteering.
TO: Sum Jung Gai
If you live in the USA, you owe your freedom to the very people you are calling names. And if you don’t live here you’re paying too much tax. That is, unless you’re on some kind of government hand-out.
BTW, can you read? I said Jesus HAS a Mac. Right now he’s logged on to the world.
Ron,
You made Sum’s point very clearly. Thank you.
Our nation’s freedom has not been truly attacked since the Civil War, except by the right wing wackos. Their mission is not freedom, but dominance and oppression. And it is truly ironic that their “mascot” was a left-wing radical pacifist.
Truly ironic.
a friend of mine used to send me messages about pending virus attacks and suggestions on how to protect my computer. i kept telling him that i had a Mac and wasnt affected by Windows nasties.
finally, one day i sat down with him and asked him… “Just what happens when you get this (add name here) virus? How does it work?” and then i sat quietly and listened while they explained, asking revelant questions now and then. once i had the full explanation i said: “I asked you that because I’d never actually had one and wondered how it affected a computer.” when they asked how i managed that i replied with a shrug, sheepishly… “I have a Mac.” i went on to tell them that i had been connected to the ‘net for 2 1/2 years without antivirus software and watched their jaw drop. they then told me that i was crazy and that i was going to hose my computer. i informed them that according to Symantic there were no known, proven viruses for Mac OS X in the wild and that OS X had been on the market and virus free for 4 years. they still insisted that i was going to get hosed. then i asked how long did they think their computer would last on the ‘net without antivirus software and they answered “…just minutes”.
then i said, “I’ve been on a high-speed connection, 24/7 for two years without antivirus. If what you said is true, don’t you think my Mac would have been fried by now?”
silence…
today, they’re trying to decide which PowerMac G5 to buy.
Well said Sum Jung Gai!
ron,
if you know your bible, you’ll know that Sum Jung Gai
has got it right.
Jesus was indeed a “left-wing radical pacifist who opposed the government and capitalist principles at every opportunity”
Like Sum Jung Gai, I’ve never understood why so many middle class, right-wing, conservatives adopt such a radical, left-wing revolutionary like Jesus as their figure head.
No response to… Put a switch on the computer, to turn OFF the disk drive. If the disk drive is not moving, I want someone to tell me how anyone can get a virus. You put the switch on the computer-for what? 2 cents? And there there is NO possibilaty of a virus! So… Still no respose?
Yes, but I’m talking about today, Jesus has never condoned all this killing of the unborn. He gave us free will so that we could condemn or save ourselves.
And he still has a Mac!
wow mac people are wierd.
and they are also weird.
Yeah ron, you go boy. Forget all the millions of people slaughtered in the name of Jesus Christ over the centuries and to this day. Forget about the religious nuts who commit acts of terrorism outside family planning clinics and murder innocent people. Forget about the religious nuts who send anthrax in the U.S. Mail. Just concentrate on that one issue. One that the Bible doesn’t mention and Jesus didn’t preach about.
Then if you wake up someday and find yourself in a sea of flames surrounded by eternal evil and a devil poking you in the ass with a pitchfork for all time, you can say, “Yeah but Planned Parenthood, man! Those guys are Baaaaaad.”
Planned Parenthood—what a larff.
They plan for opposite.
Jesus loves his Mac. He has plans for you.
okay, now I have to weigh in.
if people acted responsibly, i.e. use birth control, then abortions would not be necessary at all! talking about pro life or pro choice is completely bypassing the more important question: birth control. I would call myself a liberal who is opposed to abortions not because it’s a question of choice, but because it’s so damn unnecessary!! (save, of course, for sexual assaults, etc.) please, don’t reduce the liberal platform to life or death for embryos. that’s not the issue! it’s a much broader question tied to whether you feel like your life should be prescribed, or subscribed. if you understood that liberals want people to live life more freely, but still responsibly, then there would be no liberal/conservative dichotomy. instead, people would be talking about goverment, rights, choices, etc.
now, yes, Jesus was a left leaning liberal. why? because he opposed the big government (Rome) which had used its ends to justify its means. Jesus never dictated how people should live. instead, they should want to choose to live a certain way. if not, they would hold themselves responsible rather than blaming someone else. Jesus acknowledged mistakes, difficulties, etc. He did not claim that “freedom” – whatever that means, justified all means and methods, including the subversion of democracy and REAL freedom.
please, keep in mind that nothing is black and white, and please think for yourselves. if people were responsible in this day and age, how many discussions of pro life or choice would be unnecessary? it’s not that difficult, people.
Yup, some Mac people are insane. Fortunately, I’m a Mac user and not insane like Ron, Charko, Dave and Sum Wacky Gai.
Ron: “Yes, but I’m talking about today, Jesus has never condoned all this killing of the unborn.”
Killing the unborn? Yes, of course, Jesus never condone killing ANYONE and last I heard conservatives were “Pro-Life” and liberals or leftists are “Pro-Death”, as in abortion. Jesus was definitely not a leftist.
Charko: Jesus was indeed a “left-wing radical pacifist who opposed the government and capitalist principles at every opportunity”
Wrong, Jesus was a radical in the sense that he was against repressive governments and theocracies like many of the Islamic nations of today. He basically told the Pharisees and Rome to go to hell and was killed for it. He would tell Osama Bin Laden and Al-Zarqawri the same today. He was also against “GREED” not capitalism, basically saying “why do you concern yourself with amassing riches when you can’t take it with you when you die.” Yes, he threw out the money changers from the church, but hell, doing business in a sacred place of worship is sooo not cool. I would have kicked them out too!
Dave: “Our nation’s freedom has not been truly attacked since the Civil War, except by the right wing wackos.”
Tell that to the families of the 3000 people that lost their freedom on 9/11 at the hands of 19 Islamic wackos. You are a sick puppy.
Dave: “and it is truly ironic that their “mascot” was a left-wing radical pacifist.”
Think a left-wing pacifist would risk their life to stand up to a murderous mob ready to stone a woman to death? Pacifist…..NOT!
You guys are morons and have a perverse perception of Jesus. Get some sense, please.
– Flame away…..don’t forget to use your profane language either.
no idea what you tools are blabbing about.. check into CNET on Monday for the ultimate spin
… or censored coverage.
I can see it now: “Phone calls to Redmond were not immediately returned.”
Face it, a potential hack (Dashboard) gets more press than this thing will (a real scary virus) on CNET.
So much for the security through obscurity thing. If a real virus existed on OS X, do you have any idea how much press there would be?
A large chunk of the Internet runs on Windows servers as do ATMs, POS Check/Credit Card Clearing, Telephone Switching, Remote Sensing for Utilities and many critical applications. At work we are having a nightmare with a Konica/Minolta DICOM (Medical Image Protocol) Printer that is acting like a demon-possessed crack addict. When talking with tech support I found out it is running embedded Windows. Great. Just great…
While your Mac may not get the virus, many things you use every day may well be affected by the virus. Your ISP may well be affected and could leave you and your Mac in the dark.
No, Christ of Nazareth was a famous Rabbi born in 0 AD. He didn’t have a Mac. Or electricity. Or indoor plumbing. Or dental hygiene or a proper hairbrush or deodorant.
Actually, there’s no historical reference to a Jesus Christ or Jesus of Nazareth, most likely a composite character made into a “prophet” for the nascent Christian sect followers. Since the only mention is in “the Bible,” what people would be better served by is reading about the history of the Bible not the book itself, just as important as Muslims reading The Satanic Verses. Remember the Crusades and the Inquisition?
This country was not founded on the Christian religion, which is definitely news to the Bible thumpers. George Washington said so himself in the Treaty of Tripoli 1796, signed into law by president John Adams.
Perhaps the anti-virus programs for Mac mislead Windows users into thinking there are viruses that affect Macs. I don’t have any, and don’t intend to get any. Windows users are on their own.
Er… Neomonkey. Sorry, not true about thre being no historical reference to Jesus Christ. A contemporary historian is Josephus (surely you’ve heard of him) who was pro-Roman and Jewish so was not a follower of the “nascent Christian sect”. That term is also a misnomer as in its early years, Christianity was viewed as a sect of Judaism. anyway, Josephus does mention the trial and resurrection of Jesus.
Hope that clears up any confusion in the minds of readers.
Also, there may be one or two more contemporary references but I forget the names of the Roman historians. Will let you know if I remember.
I don’t think there’s any real controversy about the existence of Jesus. There is plenty of question about the dates Christians celebrate, and much of the folkloric stories, since so many of them were blatantly nicked from Judaism and Zoroastrianism. But even the Muslims and Jews accept Jesus as having been a somewhat significant prophet, right?
The right-wing wackos neo-Christians on this forum who don’t know that Jesus preached pacifism are as perverted as those Muslims who think that Mohammed taught suicide bombing.
Jesus taught his followers to turn the other cheek, to suffer in silence, to be meek, to forgive, to spurn ambition, to help the needy and feed the poor, and on and on.
My favorite bumper sticker says, “Who would Jesus carpet-bomb?” Oh yeah, and “Oh look, honey, another pro-lifer for war!”
Both liberals and conservatives do things that Jesus wouldn’t do, because none of us are perfect… which is the reason he was sent in the first place.
I belive the topic was the Sober.p virus.
Quit feeding the trolls.
Hmmm. Could it be another blaster-like effect for the Windows using community? If it should happen again, you think they’ll figure it out this time? The billions of dollars lost due to the sheer ignorance of depending on an insecure OS was truly shocking but yet they persist. Apple should put out a public service style commercial warning of the dangers of using Windows.
MacDude,
That is simply the best idea I’ve heard in a very long time. Apple? Are you listening? Need an extra for the commercial?
Things will never change, MS Windows users suffer from “battered spouse syndrome”, and no matter how much MS abuses them, they always come back “Cuz I luv him!”
If you want an Apple commercial, put a Microsoft engineer on the Jerry Springer stage with a Windows user as the battered spouse.
You religious nutters are all alike. It’s all about Macs, that’s the only religion. There’s also cricket and rugby and baseball and soccer…
You’re all mistaken … but that’s OK; it’s how daddy made you.
Why argue? Religion is for morons.
CK Lai, it appears that the New Testament writers, whoever they were, based their stories on Flavius Josephus’s accounts, but Josephus lived after the alleged Jesus.
Do some research outside of what believers want people to think:
It is largely through the writings of Josephus we understand the world of Jesus’ day, and ultimately Jesus himself, even though there is only one questionable reference to Jesus in the writings (modern scholars belive this was probably a patristic insertion or at least a reworking by patristic writers).
The New Testament has even fewer surviving texts. Scholars think that not until years after Jesus’ alleged death that its authors wrote the Gospels. There exists no evidence that the New Testament came from the purported original apostles or anyone else that had seen the alleged Jesus. Although the oldest surviving Christian texts came from Paul, he had never seen the earthly Jesus.
It is not a foregone conclusion that a Jesus Christ actually existed. The real story is what was included and what was excluded from “the Bible” over the centuries.
“Reilgion is true to the common people, false to the wise people and useful to the leaders.” – Seneca
Yeah well Macs might be affected. If the entire Windows world goes down, we’ll have no more internet to play on.
Hi, Neomonkey
Thanks for your response. As to your remark about “Do some research outside of what believers want people to think”, I have. I just wanted to keep it short and sweet in response to your remark there is no historical evidence for a Jesus of Nazareth.
Josephus: You know, for the sake of simplicity I actually deleted my comment about the patristic glosses to Josephus, namely “if it be lawful to call him a man”, “he was(the) Christ”, “for he appeare to them on the 3rd day…” but it no way invalidates the rest of the passage that Josephus writes about the existence of a Jesus of nazareth.
Tacitus (a Roman 1st century historian): “Christus… suffered the extreme penalty during the reign of Tiberius at the hands of one of our procurators, Pontius Pilatus…” (Annals 15.44.2-8)
Suetonius (Claudius 25.4; Nero 16.2)
Pliny the Younger, Celsus, Epictitus are also some early historians.
“The New Testament has even fewer surviving texts.”
If this is meant to say there is little textual or source-critical evidence for the authenticity or reliability of the New Testament, here’s some comparisons:
Thucydide’s “History”:
date of original document: 460-400 B.C.
Oldest surviving copy: 900 A.D.
No. of ancient copies in exixtence: 8
Caesar’s “Gallic War”
date of original document: 58-50 B.C.
Oldest surviving copy: 850 A.D.
No. of ancient copies in existence: 10
Tacitus’ “Histories”
date of original document: 100 A.D.
Oldest surviving copy: 800 A.D.
No. of ancient copies in existence: 2
The 4 Gospels
date of original document: 65-90 A.D. (Yes, I am aware of the arguments for a 2nd century dating but none of them have been compelling enough).
Oldest surviving copies: circa 350 A.D.
No. of ancient copies in existence: 2 complete copies of NT, and literally thousands of partial and complete portions of the variou books, all dating from 150 A.D. to 250 A.D.
“he New Testament writers, whoever they were, based their stories on Flavius Josephus’s accounts, but Josephus lived after the alleged Jesus.”
Actually, if you’ve read the 4 Gospels and Josephus’ Antiquities, I’d be VERY surprised to know how the writers (and yes, I do admit that technically, the 4 Gospels were anonymous) made it all up of whole cloth as Josephus has only 2 mentions of Jesus in his writings, both of them totalling less than 150 words. Whle it is definitely true to say Josephus provides us with a good understanding of the socio-political background of Palestine in the 1st century AD, I fail to see how he could have provided the details necessary for the Gospel writers to have written based on info contained in his writings.
Anyway, i could go on but this isn’t the place for it. If you like you can e-mail me at chinkster@gmail.com.nospam (remove the obvious spam trap) and we can continue this stimulating (to me, and I hope to you also) discusssion.
Thanks
It’s attached to an email that offers free World Cup tickets?
Well then, nobody in the USA will be affected, since the overall population of the United States of America doesn’t give a damn about soccer played by anyone over the age of 16…