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Hackers port Linux trojan to Mac OS X

“OSX/Tsunami-A, a new backdoor Trojan horse for Mac OS X, has been discovered,” Graham Cluley reports for Sophos.

“What makes Tsunami particularly interesting is that it appears to be a port of Troj/Kaiten, a Linux backdoor Trojan horse that once it has embedded itself on a computer system listens to an IRC channel for further instructions,” Cluley reports. “Typically code like this is used to rally compromised computers into a DDoS (distributed denial-of-service) attack, flooding a website with traffic.”

Cluley reports, “Sophos’s Mac anti-virus products (including our free anti-virus for Mac home users) have been updated to detect OSX/Tsunami-A.”

Read more in the full article here.

MacDailyNews Note: Here’s our usual oft-repeated reminder for Mac users and anyone who’s trying to use any other platform: Do not download and authorize the installation of applications (Trojans) from untrusted sources. No OS can protect users from themselves (or we wouldn’t be able to install any software). Those who grant attackers access to their Macs, should not be surprised to find their Macs are compromised.

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