Detailed info about potential Mac OS X Trojan horse

34 Comments

1. The Apple OS is “attacked” by a nonexistent Trojan Horse. Apple pledges action.

   Hackers besiege PC users regularly. MS et al stand around with their thumbs up their rectums.

   Now, children, which operating system is more secure?

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2. I am surprised how many people have never heard of Intego. As Ed said, Apple Stores sell their products. I have used Intego’s Net Barrier for years and have recommended it. I have also used Virus Barrier with which I have had no problems. Intego also makes a number of other Mac products. Some people have complained about their customer service, although I have had no problems with them at all. Overall, it has been an established Mac software company.

   Clearly, they handled this announcement poorly. Nonetheless, Symantec and Apple have come out with statements concerning this neither of which has yet said it is a non-issue.

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3. smucker, M$ is usually standing around blaming the end users (not much different from your description). The logical conclusion, of course, is that M$ thinks that their customers are stupid. I’ll just leave it at that.

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4. When Intego Virus Barrier detected this so-called ‘Trojan’, I immediately became suspicious as to its validity. There is no such thing as an MP3 virus in existence on any platform! The ‘virus’ would not spread easily in the wild (no reports in wild as yet) & I cannot fathom how it got onto my system. Perhaps Intego �found� an existing �vulnerability� in OS X, & included the pseudo virus definition in its latest update. There are no forks for data files such as MP3’s, so it cannot be copied onto other parts of the system simply by the user opening the file. Intego should stick to what they are good at (the excellent Net Barrier is one to mention) and stop trying to show off to potential customers. This latest incident demonstrates the unacceptable face of capitalism e.g. pretentious and aggressive marketing and not credible or helpful technical knowledge.

   Finally, I’d just like to say the press has been rather naive in running stories about this ‘Trojan’ before it was verified and peer assessed by security professionals. A good name for it could be Trifle.MP3.Created.By.Press.Zealots.exe

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5. What kind of, uh, person uses anti-virus software on Mac OS X? There are ZERO Mac OS X viruses.

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6. There are macro viruses that can affect both Office X and Office for Windows.

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7. There are macro viruses that can affect both Office X and Office for Windows.

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8. Actually, Jobzzz, if this trojan were something real (as in, it had actually been successfully deployed and propagated to hapless (i.e., Windows) users then that would amount to approximately 3E-3% of distributed viruses/trojans/etc.— thats 0.0033% to the mathematically challenged, Jobzzz, or about 600 times less than your 2% FUD. Because it is just a *potential* trojan then it is actually only zero percent of known problems. Most of the other 100% are (thankfully) on the Windows side of computing. If obscurity were the reason then I would say God bless obscurity. Unfortunately for you, the real reason is basic OS security (or lack thereof).

   Thanks for giving me an easy target. I feel a lot better now. Come back soon!

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9. Hmm…no viruses for Mac OS X. Oh yeah, would you like to have some? Just because it’s illegal to spread viruses it will be hard to prove but maybe by accident I’ll lose a CD with some OS X viruses…

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