Posted on 11/05/2010 2:30:16 AM PDT by Swordmaker
In late October, SecureMac discovered a new trojan that affected users of Mac OS X. On Thursday, the company posted a warning that a new variant of the trojan has been discovered.
The new variant was discovered by security firm ESET. The original trojan attempted to trick users into installing the software, but the servers hosting the new variant appear to be hosting updated code for the malware, according to SecureMac.
The servers distributing the updated malware also appear to contain keystroke logs from infected machines, including usernames and passwords, the company said.
Microsoft has also documented the trojan for both Mac and Windows, rating the threat level for both operating systems as severe. SecureMac rates the security risk of the malware as being critical.
Only Intego has rated the threat level as minimal, contradicting Microsoft, SecureMac and ESET’s interpretation of the malware’s threat to users.
SecureMac released a free tool to detect and remove the malware. It is available for download from the company’s website. Instructions to manually remove the malware are also available from SecureMac.
You are welcome. ;^)>
Seriously, Windows 7 is good. Keep it up-to-date, and run a good anti-mal ware (Windows Live Essentials is probably fine), and not download anything from untrusted sites, and the average user is probably going to be safe. Windows users all would be better off upgrading to 7... but my point was that 71% of current Windows users are still exposed to rampant malware.
Yet those million malware options don’t apply to the current OS and patches, do they? In other words - it’s more on the user, not Microsoft.
Would you count malware infecting someone running OS9, or OSX 10.1?
Not OSX.1 there aren't any. And MacOS9 is a different product. With OSX it has always been on the user. That has not been true with Microsoft for 90% of it's history. . . and 71% of its currently in use OS product.
So, if you’re going to ding Microsoft for still supporting (but telling people to move) a 10 year old OS (which is what OSX 10.1 would be), then you should also mention that they STILL SUPPORT that 10 year old OS with updates, and provide security tools (MSE, for example) as well.
That “million malware” mark is probably off by ~5 orders of magnitude, when limited to the most recent OS release, as done for OSX.
Jim,
Hate to bug you again...but.
You told PugetSoundSoldier and some others to stay off the Apple threads. The others have respected your request, PugetSoundSoldier has not, REPEATEDLY. He lays low for a while and then starts up again with his trolling and baiting.
He even starts his own Apple threads. The thing is he’s not even an honest debater, more like a liberal dealing in straw-men, half-truths, and often rampant name calling, some of the older threads got really, really ugly. There have been some heated debates before, but Puget takes it to a whole another level, it’s an obsession, and an unhealthy one.
The guy has no respect for the owner of the forum’s request, so you can imagine how his behavior is with the rest of us.
But how many hoops do you have to jump through to get it to install on Linux?
Probably not as many as with OSX, because I don't think the Linux OS warns you about the malicious nature of the download, but it still takes an industrial strength stupid user to do it... whom I think is much rarer in the Linux world.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.