But I thought they promised this was only possible on windows, so I bought a mac to be "secure".
And to think people paid a premium for this.
A better article on the latest mac virus.
I’m the farthest thing from a Mac fanboi, but I think this isn’t indicative of anything other than a shift in the social computing sphere. Apple has an increasing market share, and haxX0rs are going to tailor exploits more for those machines.
Also count on M$ coming out in the coming months to say something along the lines of, “See, Win 7 IS more secure,” when in reality it’s just that more people are wise to schemes on Win machines. Mac users have heretofore thought they were immune or less likely to have problems, but with this new batch of malware, they’re going to have to wise up like the Windoze users have over the last 15 years.
For the record, I’m a Linux fanboi.
By that, he means: an age of willful and smug naivete.
Even with this virus, MACs are million times better than those cheap HPs.
It seems like most of the big tech blogs are ignoring this bit of news.
Apparently Apple hasn’t supplied them with sufficient talking points to pass on to the fan base to try to talk this one under the rug.
I have to be very amused when viruses and malware on Macs are described as something new.
The fact is that in the old days, there were more viruses on Macs then on PCs. This was before the World Wide Web was invented, and e-mail attachments were virtually unknown. The viruses spread by floppy diskette exchanges, BBSes, and college networks.
There were at least half a dozen useful Mac anti-virus software packages, (Virex, Interferon being two of the biggies). We admins received our Virex upgrades via snail-mail (how’s that for quaint?)
WDEF, Word Macro viruses (an equal opportunity employer), nVir, all had their day.
So, the real long term Mac fanboys (and I still like Macs just fine) know that viruses can hit a Mac.
NOW, I would say that the difference between Windows and Macs/Linux/Unix/Solaris etc. is not so much in file structures or user permissions.
It is ActiveX. Microsoft wants the computers to do a LOT more automatically without a lot user interaction. The same tool that makes this happen in IE greatly increases the ease and variety of attacks that can be made on it.
Does Intego recommend you download their software to take care of this? Or are they just doing this as a service?
No, it's not a virus, it's another social engineering trojan. A nasty one, yes. But not a virus -- it does not spread on its own. User action is still required.
I -do- wish you would learn something about this topic before so gleefully posting misinformation.
Do you work for an anti-virus software vendor? You use all their bogus scare tactics. Just askin'...
BTW, this is about the tenth thread on this topic, and yours has nothing new (the bit about not requiring a password has been out for days). Do you really think there's even one person out there, living under a rock, that hasn't heard about it yet?
You might also take a moment to point out that Apple is responding to this malware with a free security update, I think within the next few days. There are numerous threads on that already, you can look it up.
You and your cohort can resume your little juvenile "We Hate Apple, Aren't We Cool" party now.
Is this Mac malware or McMaleware?
Macs are vulnerable because of growing market share over PC’s. I bought a Mac last December (Christmas gift to myself). Recent figure I heard was that 15 percent of computer users use a Mac. And it’s not just Mac they’re after, these people are gunning for smartphones too.
“...Those who have a problem with Apple should just not buy the product and that takes care of that. Don’t come to FR to flame those who like the product. That’s just dumb...”
— Jim Robinson, owner of FreeRepublic.
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/backroom/2557969/posts?page=143#127
If you want on or off the Mac Ping List, Freepmail me.
That is not why I pay a premium for Apple products.
It is curious to me that people like you are continually accusing us Apple users of the very thing you are doing, disparaging the users. You are always complaining that we Mac users are a cult, we are gay, we are Macbots, etc. We rarely, if ever, blast Windows or Linux users but you are always accusing us of that. You project yourselves onto us. Why? If you see something negative about Apple you gleefully rush here to post it. Why? Don't you consider that juvenile?
I visited Drudge this weekend and the thing tried to get me.
I posted a screen shot of it here:
http://tinypic.com/view.php?pic=30cc083&s=7
I had to force quit Safari to make it go away.
BTTT