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First Mac OS X Virus Found

Opinion
Feb 16, 20061 min
Data CenterMacOSViruses

According to an article on MacRumors: “On the evening of the [February] 13th, an unknown user posted an external link to a file on MacRumors Forums claiming to be the latest Leopard Mac OS X 10.5 screenshots … The resultant file decompresses into what appears to be a standard JPEG icon in Mac OS X but is actually a compiled Unix executable in disguise.

The article goes on to report that “An initial disassembly … reveals evidence that the application is virus-like or was designed to give that impression” but points out that it is more Trojan- than virus-like. The most recent research reveals that the malware however you want to classify it “does send itself to other users in your AIM/iChat buddy list.” Is this the beginning of the end for the virus free OS X world?

mark_gibbs

Mark Gibbs is an author, journalist, and man of mystery. His writing for Network World is widely considered to be vastly underpaid. For more than 30 years, Gibbs has consulted, lectured, and authored numerous articles and books about networking, information technology, and the social and political issues surrounding them. His complete bio can be found at http://gibbs.com/mgbio

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