“The latest round of the Sober virus, first discovered a week ago, sends out waves of e-mails to addresses found on PCs already infected. A small percentage contained links to Web sites that tried to infect visiting machines with the virus,” Karen Heinselman writes for The Waterloo Cedar-Falls Courier (Iowa).
“Kris Brunkhorst of Waverly — a Macintosh owner and an apparent victim of Sober spam — said she didn’t attempt to go to any of the links. She uses Netscape, which she said opens e-mail even if she wants to delete it. Brunkhorst was surprised when her Apple G5 froze as it attempted to download 107 messages, some with familiar e-mail tags. She had hoped her Mac was tougher than that,” Heinselman writes.
“‘I don’t have a choice whether to open them up or not,’ Brunkhorst said. ‘Once you (click) down to who it is from in the in box it automatically opened up.’ On Wednesday, her in box continued to field return-to-sender messages with bogus addresses she never sent. One combined her mother-in-law’s name with the tail ‘wartburg.edu.’ Her mother-in-law, who received at least 200 unwanted messages, does not work for the college,” Heinselman writes. “Most viruses take advantage of Microsoft, like operating system vulnerabilities or address book capabilities, said Gary Wipperman, director of Information Technology Services at Wartburg. ‘Since most people use the Windows platform, it is the most bang for the buck (for the virus sender),’ Wipperman said. But other programs are vulnerable, too.”
Full article here.
MacDailyNews Take: How is it possible to get so much so thoroughly wrong? What’s an “Apple G5,” exactly? What does she mean by “froze?” Perhaps it was downloading the 107 email messages that took awhile and maybe the “Apple G5” wasn’t “frozen?” She uses “Netscape?” Netscape what? Netscape email? Online or the application? Maybe it was “Netscape” that froze, not the “Apple G5.” Why does the writer use an “Apple G5” owner as an example, when millions of Windows PCs have actually been infected with the Sober virus and Macs cannot be infected?
If she were to write an article about a Mad Cow disease outbreak, for example, would she focus on interviewing a vegan about the impact of rising vegetable prices? We can only assume that back when Firestone tires were shredding off SUVs on the highway, she was off like a shot to Pennsylvania to see what the Amish thought.
Facts: the Sober virus runs on Windows only, not Macs; and it isn’t because fewer people use Macs, it’s because Apple’s Mac OS X is more secure than Windows by design. A Mac’s email Inbox can become clogged with Sober spam, but the payload cannot affect Macs. There are zero viruses for Mac OS X. The writer of this corn-pone article has an email address:
To send a letter to The Waterloo Cedar-Falls Courier Editor: https://secure.townnews.com/wcfcourier.com/secure/letters/ or
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How do these people get jobs at NEWSpapers?????
Well, in the writer’s defense, it’s essentially the story that Macs are affected by Windows viruses because Windows machines keep trying to infect them.
As for Netscape mail, well, it is pretty buggy. I would have no problem believing that it “froze.” You bash the reporter, but I’d point out that most people are like that. Lots of people run one application at a time and if that application hangs, then “the computer is frozen.”
The reporter is obviously not a technology reporter and is probably only reporting what others said.
ID 10 T error there
You’d think with the recent rash of poorly researched stories that have aired or published that editors would be more careful about what they present to the public. Someone has to be held accountable for this.
Peter,
Are you really trying to excuse the reporter for utterly failing to do her research and for presenting an article that pretty much completely misleads the public and intimates that “Apple G5s” are being “frozen” by a variant of the Sober virus that can only actually infect Windows PCs?
Ah yes, As the Pinwheel turns….
This seems incompetent, but I would point out the facts GENTLY to the reporter. Unless she has a pattern of anti-Mac bias, there’s no point in flaming her, and proudly counter-productive.
See Honey? All those Mac faggot liars: the Apple G5 got infected from Sober just like our PC and it froze.
I told you, I told you many times: those tree Mac huggers are all communists and trying to bring down US economy. It is a plot.
They say the Mac is a computer THEN how do they want us to believe it cannot be infected by computer viruses. They will not fool me, I tell you!
Liars and communists, I tell you!
20 to 1 she is a blond!!!
“We can only assume that back when Firestone tires were shredding off SUVs on the highway, she was off like a shot to Pennsylvania to see what the Amish thought.”
Crap. Just ruined another keyboard. Gotta stop drinking Diet Coke while reading MDN takes.
I went to college in Cedar Falls (University of Northern Iowa) and almost wrote for the Courier after I graduated. Decided against it since there are only 100,000 people in Cedar Falls/Waterloo and I wanted something bigger. Now I write freelance entertainment articles, but still need to fact check what I write. This reporter didn’t. Oh, and I think the Courier at the time used PCs and would assume they still do.
I sent her a gentle letter informing her of the error in her column. I encourage others to do the same.
Macs don’t get viruses. What I have seen is that a virus will attack a PC owner who has a Mac person’s e-mail address in their address book. The virus “harvests” the e-mail addressses off the PC then uses those addresses (and variations of them) as return addresses for spam. Sometimes the only way the Mac person knows their e-mail address is being mis-used is when they get “return to sender” e-mails. Using a mail tool (like Apple’s) with easy-to-set filtering, one can automatically delete or isolate those kinds of messages. Regretably, people who don’t understand how things work, blame the Mac for what is really a PC-only problem. I was an officer in a soccer club and we Mac users had to deal with this phenomenon fairly often as our officers’ mailing list was compromised on some unprotected PC.
Any interest in a Class Action Lawsuit against Microsoft on behalf of all Mac users for having their email efficiency compromised by spam from PCs running Microsoft Windows?
AveragePeeCeeIdiots: “Liars and communists, I tell you!”
But Sputnik claims he doesn’t use a Mac.
Type..Kris Brunkhorst of Waverly…into Google search. hahahahahaha
even if it was mail.app downloading 100 or so emails so what, my imac 1.8 handled about that many perhaps more when i fixed the httpmail plugin problem
I agree with Peters assessment after reading the full article. However, reporters have a duty to report the truth, and the truth of the matter is that although sober’s effects may be clogging her inbox, her APPLE computer was unaffected. That is what should have been said.
As a side note – as to not having a choice to open them or not – is this not a setting within (I’m going to Ass U Me) Netscapes mail program that can be changed?
I really hate how uninformed computer novices shape the opinions of others
it sounds like someone told her the Dell box she is working on is actually a brand new “Apple G5” and she neglected to look under the desk. In that case i have a slightly used p-p-p-powerbook that i’ll sell her for a couple hundred bucks.
http://www.p-p-p-powerbook.com/
this reminds me of a blog entry that I saw the other day. Someone decided that a Mac was probably not the best way because it has been getting infected with viruses lately.
http://devores.blogspot.com/2005/03/mac-not-so-invulnerable.html
At long last the truth is coming out.
We in the “real IT word” have stated forever that Apple PC’s do not have the tools needed to protect the Apple work station and that places the entire network infrastructure at risk.
This is classic example of how virus effect and cripple Apple’s.
For your own computing safety stick with a quality PC with a Microsoft OS.
©
Honestly, some people can’t tell the difference between piss and champagne!
I emailed her, and told her there’s no such thing as an Apple G5. I was polite, but firm.
MW: hell
Don’t write to the hack journalist… write to her boss…
AveragePeeCeeIdiotsAfterReadingtheArticle
Ah yes the inteligence of a PC user shine’s through once again. The fact remains Macs and OSX do not, and have not been infected period. You can call us all the names you want. Facts are facts. If you can prove otherwise than let’s see the facts and not your name calling.
Ms. Heinselman,
What a splendid job you did highlighting the Sober virus.
The way your words presented the severity of the issue using Ms. Brunkhorst were very telling. Your bias became crystal clear when you failed to state that the e-mails were all generated by infected computers running Windows.
Couldn’t find any Windows users? Maybe Mr. Wipperman could find you one to interview.
News is news, your writing was editorial, put it where it belongs.
Tom Shaughnessy