For the first time, macs are the target of a worm. And you figured it was
only microsoft.

On Sat, 18 Feb 2006 01:26:33 +0000, Calif Bill wrote:

For the first time, macs are the target of a worm. And you figured it was
only microsoft.

According to BBC this particular worm needs quite a bit of manual
and stupid interaction to actually manage to infect the computer...

/Martin

On Sat, 18 Feb 2006 14:54:12 -0500, gfretwell wrote:

On Sat, 18 Feb 2006 01:59:12 GMT, Mys Terry
wrote:

Now that Macs are using intel processors, the biggest problem will be
hackers stealing the OS to load on platforms other than those sold by
Apple.


I bet apple puts a hook in the BIOS (missing in other Intel boxes) that
keeps their software proprietary. All they need is to emulate a few
"apple only" instructions in copyrighted firmware. The hardware is only
what the microcode says it is. I suppose there could be a reverse
engineered BIOS hack but I doubt it would be widespread enough to impact
apple's bottom line.

I'm not sure. Much of the Mac OS X underpinnings are open sourced (BSD),
and already run on Intel boxes. Drivers for the various peripherals may
be more problematic.

http://www.eweek.com/article2/0,1895,1824229,00.asp

"Martin Schöön" wrote in message
news
On Sat, 18 Feb 2006 01:26:33 +0000, Calif Bill wrote:

For the first time, macs are the target of a worm. And you figured it
was
only microsoft.

According to BBC this particular worm needs quite a bit of manual
and stupid interaction to actually manage to infect the computer...

/Martin


Most worms are that way.

On Sun, 19 Feb 2006 04:27:07 +0000, Calif Bill wrote:


"Martin Schöön" wrote in message
news
On Sat, 18 Feb 2006 01:26:33 +0000, Calif Bill wrote:

For the first time, macs are the target of a worm. And you figured it
was
only microsoft.

According to BBC this particular worm needs quite a bit of manual
and stupid interaction to actually manage to infect the computer...

/Martin

Most worms are that way.

So all stories in the media about malware that installs itself and
start running while you surf the net are just the produce of the
marketing divisions of anti-virus program vendors?

/Martin

"Martin Schöön" wrote in message
news
On Sun, 19 Feb 2006 04:27:07 +0000, Calif Bill wrote:


"Martin Schöön" wrote in message
news
On Sat, 18 Feb 2006 01:26:33 +0000, Calif Bill wrote:

For the first time, macs are the target of a worm. And you figured it
was
only microsoft.

According to BBC this particular worm needs quite a bit of manual
and stupid interaction to actually manage to infect the computer...

/Martin

Most worms are that way.

So all stories in the media about malware that installs itself and
start running while you surf the net are just the produce of the
marketing divisions of anti-virus program vendors?

/Martin

Most virus are installed when you click on the executable attachment. On IE
you can tell it not to activate these type file automatically. As well as
OE.

On Sun, 19 Feb 2006 20:17:29 +0000, Calif Bill wrote:
snip

So all stories in the media about malware that installs itself and
start running while you surf the net are just the produce of the
marketing divisions of anti-virus program vendors?

/Martin

Most virus are installed when you click on the executable attachment. On IE
you can tell it not to activate these type file automatically. As well as
OE.

"The malicious program tries to trick users into installing it
and does not exploit any security holes in Apple's OS X operating system.
It travels in a file called "latestpics.tgz" and only version 10.4 of OS X
is vulnerable to it.

Installing and running the worm requires users to go through several
stages and this, along with bugs in Leap-A's code, have led security firms
to play down the threat it poses."

Is not quite the same situation as:

"The US net watchdog, the Computer Emergency Response Center (Cert),
and security firms have issued warnings about certain types of image files
called Windows Metafiles.

Experts said numerous websites were taking advantage of the flaw to sneak
into computers and install spyware."

/Martin (no, I don't have a Mac myself)