http://today.reuters.com/news/newsarticle.aspx?type=internetNews&storyid=2006-02-17T012934Z_01_N16227596_RTRUKOC_0_US-APPLE-VIRUS.xml&rpc=22
the whole arguement of "Macs don't get viri" is totally out the windows now (no pun intended)
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Get Ready, Worm Virus Assaulting Mac OS X |
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Mulch Ennui
15 Minutes are Over
Join date: 22 May 2005
Posts: 2,607
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02-16-2006 17:54
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Moss Talamasca
Serpent & Thistle
Join date: 20 Aug 2005
Posts: 367
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02-16-2006 19:23
Macs don't get virii because up until recently nobody bothered. Many misunderstood that. Since Mac has a mere 20% (at best) of the market and most of that in homes and studios rather than workplaces or financial systems, it wasn't fun or profitable to crash Macs. It has nothing to do with the security or strength of the OS.
But enough boastful hubris and a few hardy souls have apprently whipped up a worm or two for OSX. We're just as susceptible. |
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Reitsuki Kojima
Witchhunter
Join date: 27 Jan 2004
Posts: 5,328
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02-17-2006 02:24
Macs don't get virii because up until recently nobody bothered. Many misunderstood that. Since Mac has a mere 20% (at best) of the market and most of that in homes and studios rather than workplaces or financial systems, it wasn't fun or profitable to crash Macs. It has nothing to do with the security or strength of the OS. But enough boastful hubris and a few hardy souls have apprently whipped up a worm or two for OSX. We're just as susceptible. Actually, probably more, because your users haven't evolved in an environment where virii were possible. How many mac users are dilligent about anti-virus procedures? Not just keeping an anti-virus program up to date (I don't, and I use windows), but just being very careful about the ways one exposes themselves. _____________________
I am myself indifferent honest; but yet I could accuse me of such things that it were better my mother had not borne me: I am very proud, revengeful, ambitious, with more offenses at my beck than I have thoughts to put them in, imagination to give them shape, or time to act them in. What should such fellows as I do crawling between earth and heaven? We are arrant knaves, all; believe none of us.
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Ordinal Malaprop
really very ordinary
Join date: 9 Sep 2005
Posts: 4,607
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02-17-2006 02:48
Call this a virus? It's a program that sends itself to people on your buddy list via IM. It requires you to accept a file, download it and then install it (at which point it infects some of your applications, though not many). And that combined with the small Mac user base means that it won't propagate. Even Symantec rate it:
# Number of infections: 0 - 49 # Number of sites: 0 - 2 # Geographical distribution: Low # Threat containment: Easy # Removal: Easy I'm not bothered about this sort of thing, preying on idiots who decompress and open attachments that are sent to them by bots - duh. It's an issue that needs to be pointed out as part of idiot education campaigns, but it's not the same thing as something that actually exploits a flaw in the OS or another program and uses it to spread automatically. It's more like a POC trojan than anything else. |
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Jesrad Seraph
Nonsense
Join date: 11 Dec 2004
Posts: 1,463
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02-17-2006 03:55
the whole arguement of "Macs don't get viri" is totally out the windows now (no pun intended) It's a trojan. People have to download it themselves, unpack it themselves, run it themselves and give it friggin admin rights themselves too. [Edit] The one thing that is definitely newsworthy here, is that /Library shouldn't be group-writeable => sudo chmod -R g-w /Library _____________________
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Moss Talamasca
Serpent & Thistle
Join date: 20 Aug 2005
Posts: 367
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02-17-2006 05:26
Yeah, it'a pretty lame little guy.
 Most Mac users never even think about virus (or trojan) protection since we get almost no threats. I'm fairly vigilant, having my email html turned off and owning anti-virus software, but i think i'm the exception to the rule. Most applers exist in an idyllic pleasure world full of round colorful buttons and curved edges. |
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Zuzu Fassbinder
Little Miss No Tomorrow
Join date: 17 Sep 2004
Posts: 2,048
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02-17-2006 09:34
Wow, things have changed a lot. Back when I used to use Macs (OS 7?) the mac clusters were always infested with viruses. I also remember a fiasco where the apple talk network on campus gave far too much access to remote users.
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Dianne Mechanique
Back from the Dead
Join date: 28 Mar 2005
Posts: 2,648
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02-17-2006 09:48
Wow, things have changed a lot. Back when I used to use Macs (OS 7?) the mac clusters were always infested with viruses. I also remember a fiasco where the apple talk network on campus gave far too much access to remote users. Glad it's gone. I remember the same thing, but I was told then that most of the "viri' were not really viri either. Mostly just "mac haters" connecting through the notoriously wide-open AppleTalk and messing around with the computer. _____________________
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