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With its increased market share now a reported 6% to 8%, it was bound to happen: Macs are finally being targeted by computer viruses. Yesterday Apple confirmed that certain pornographic sites contain software that can surreptitiously install itself on a Mac, and though they didn't specify what the malware does, we're guessing it doesn't improve your processor's performance.
Is this the beginning of a Mac virus onslaught, or an anomaly? No one's quite sure; says Symantec engineer Joji Hamada, "Stay tuned."
Retraction: It has come to my attention that the security breach Apple commented on was not in fact a virus, but a Trojan Horse that cannot surreptitiously install itself on your Mac. I'd like to apologize to our readers (all of them, even the guy who accused me of "jumping on something that is a negative for Apple and running with it" since that is apparently a powerful motivation to write something) for the misinformation.
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Comments
Correctly, it is a trojan, not a virus, because you still have to apply your password for the install. Virus implies self-replicating and spreading, which it cannot do.
It is not a "virus." It is a simple trojan. The Mac user must authorize its install. It does not "surreptitiously install itself on a Mac."
Mre info here: http://macdailynews.com/index.php/weblog/comments/15394/
It's not a virus, it's a trojan horse and it depends on the clueless of the user to propagate install itself initially. This one has been around a while and you're just now getting to it?
Instead of jumping on something that is a negative for Apple and running with it, try looking deeper. You'll usually find that the facts are distorted.
Install it self???
Try, you must install it by your self and
type your admin etc.
-install it self........????
Hahahahahaha!!!!
Not even close.
MacDailyNews Take: Fools.
"Apple on Thursday confirmed reports of pornography Web sites where hidden software, once downloaded, could take control of an Apple computer. Apple did not immediately respond to claims that it is the first instance of a Trojan horse attack on Apple's Macintosh platform," Charny reports.
"After confirming the claims reported by computer-security firm Intego, Symantec engineer Joji Hamada wrote on Symantec's Web site of suspicions that a wave of attacks and viruses are due. 'If we see a rise in Mac malware, then we will have to assume that there are profits to be made in malware for Macs as well,' he wrote," Charny reports.
MacDailyNews Take: Profits for whom, Symantec?
Full article here.
[Thanks to MacDailyNews Reader "MadMac" for the heads up.]
MacDailyNews Take: Trojan horses have been around for Macs forever. They're not that rare, not very troubling to anyone with at least half a brain, and they're not "viruses." The Wall Street Journal blew this one thoroughly in the headline and Charny blew it in the article (which at least reported it correctly as a trojan, not a virus).
As usual, there are three factions at work: (1) Anti-this/Anti-software peddlers, (2) entities looking to stem the tide of Windows to Mac defectors, and (3) the painfully ignorant. Sometimes they originate from separate and distinct camps and other times they occupy two or all three groups at once. You decide from under which rock(s) Charny, his quotees, and the WSJ headliner writer crawled.
Furthermore, if The Wall Street Journal ran articles about every Windows trojan, the world would have run out of trees years ago.
One thing seems routine: Macs show increased sales and/or gain market share and the ill-informed anti-Apple/anti-Mac headlines and articles suddenly spring up. It isn't magic, or by chance, or pretty; it has a purpose: to keep the Windows sufferers on the reservation and/or to sell useless, processor-cycle-robbing software.
Here's an excellent example of what happens when an outlet like The Wall Street Journal blows it: It gets repeated and magnified a thousand times over.
This is not the first Mac trojan, nor will it be the last. As always: Do not enter your Mac OS X admin password to install anything from an unknown and/or untrusted source.
This is NOT a virus. This is a Trojan Horse, which requires a heck of a lot of user intervention to make it work. It will not automatically install by just browsing a web site. It will not install without your administrator password being entered. Ergo, don't install things with your admin password from lame porno sites.
stupid. Its not a VIRUS. Its a trojan.
read this also:
http://www.macdailynews.com/index.php/weblog/comments/the_wall_street_journal_blows_it_calls_simple_trojan_a_mac_virus/
cheers
Karl
As has been mentioned, this is not a virus, it is a Trojan Horse..
The Wall Street Journal has corrected the article.
Macs are still 100% virus free.
http://www.wired.com/politics/security/news/2007/11/mac_trojan
Wrong. It was a Trojan not a virus. You have to download it, give you admin password for it to run.
Trojans have been around for both machines for a long time and will remain. But they do not spread in the wild, you have to go get them, at least on the Mac. :-)