mac virus fears unfounded
A big THANK YOU to The Barrow in The Australian IT for setting the record straight on a supposed Trojan horse virus that allegedly masquerades as an mp3 music file and targets macintosh computers running operating system 10 (OS-X).
Phew – us mac users can play mp3s again safely! Last week the press was full – and I mean full of commentary as they talked about the dangers of a virus that attacks mac OSX operating systems – now these machines have been blissfully free of virus threats for about three years now – good old robust unix-based system! So it was with some trepidation that I began to read of a trojan horse supposedly uncovered by an anti-virus company (hmmm now THAT should have been a warning in itself – like in whose interests is it to advertise a new virus if not an anti-virus company?). Anyhow it all turned out to be much ado about not very much 🙂
It seems there was a piece of software that ran as an application but looked like an MP3 music file was actually completely harmless. Apparently the software involved was real – a proof-of concept showing that it was possible to create an application that was both an application and a legitimate music file – all in one. The problem was that he named the application virus.mp3 – and that’s when the fun started. After mentioning the software on a bulletin board, it seems some enterprising anti-virus company did a bit of ‘sexing-up’ of the information and promptly cried wolf – without the software ever leaving the lab in which it was created! So it hasn’t spread, it is not in the public arena and it is incapable of malicious activity. In short – IT IS NOT A VIRUS DUDE! And this is further confirmed in Mac News Network
cheers
Jerry (Canberra, Australia)
