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iWork '09 Torrent Carrying OS X Trojan
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Wirelessly posted (iPhone: Mozilla/5.0 (iPhone; U; CPU iPhone OS 2_2 like Mac OS X; en-us) AppleWebKit/525.18.1 (KHTML, like Gecko) Version/3.1.1 Mobile/5G77 Safari/525.20)
This is a good reason not to get pirated software. It also sucks that someone would go and do something like this.
This is a good reason not to get pirated software. It also sucks that someone would go and do something like this.
Its probably steve that made the Trojan. He wants u to buy it.Steve wants to collect statistics
See, this is what happens when Steve gets a little time off, he gets bored and goes after pirates.
First they told me that Trojans prevent disease; now they say Trojans spread viruses. Is there anything left to believe in?
Ha Ha! Nice!
I am not sure this particular coder deserves such bad sentiment. The Trojan can only be acquired via piracy: it's not malicious for the sake of being malicious, it (at least it so functions) is fighting for justice.
Now, it is hard to say whether the little man should be allowed to take the enforcement of justice into his own hands. If I had to choose to allow it or disallow it, I would choose the latter, because most people do not have a very refined sense of justice.
I personally don't think the Trojan should have been written. I am not convinced that software piracy is a bad thing. I see far more reasons to believe it doesn't hurt anyone than to believe it's causing problems.
Also, I practically advocate piracy of things like Windows (less so now than years ago) and Office, because they force people to use them whether they want to or not, on account of compatibility. I think it's an abuse of power--especially the recent ".docx" debacle. Anyhow, that's another topic.
We should all help those who are affected by this. It in no way makes the world a better place to point and laugh.
(Most of this was not in response to whom I quoted.)
First they told me that Trojans prevent disease; now they say Trojans spread viruses. Is there anything left to believe in?
lol, thats why i changed the... *ahem* protection company that i use
anyway, a lot of the macs I have serviced have had limewire installed so i'm not surprised this happened.
Don't you think that if you need software for work/play that you should purchase it, or at the very least try to find something open source? I guess I just don't see the logic in stealing something if you feel it doesn't have the value for the price.
I even spent the extra $20 for the iWork Family Pack (I have 2 Macs) knowing that I could probably sneak around the EULA.
I fear that if more people think it is okay to steal software, it will make the developers less likely to keep making products I need/want to buy.
Just my 2 cents.
So will Apple re-post those Antivirus and Security Software support pages that were taken down a few months ago ....
What for? To protect software thieves?
So will Apple re-post those Antivirus and Security Software support pages that were taken down a few months ago ....
Considering this is not a virus, no.
Who was first to report this? Its probably Apples way to scare people from pirating it, ever since the "iWork 09 doesnt ask for a serial number" story became so popular.
i have been a mac user for many years and have never even put any thought towards purchasing an antivirus software. Does anyone recommend a specific one. I might as well secure my machine just in case.
That logic is very backwards and self-serving. One of the reasons why office is practically required for "compatibility" is people that pirate office to be compatible instead of using free alternatives. Ever think of the effect on the market if everyone that uses a pirated copy of office started using OpenOffice instead. You pirate office because of the monopoly, but the monopoly is there because people pirate.
I wonder if the botnet is "phoning home" to Apple
Hmmm. If any of the websites getting the DOS belong to Apple, then all the pirates are volunteering their identities to Apple.
How sweet - steal something, and it reports you.
Hmmm. If any of the websites getting the DOS belong to Apple, then all the pirates are volunteering their identities to Apple.
How sweet - steal something, and it reports you.
i have been a mac user for many years and have never even put any thought towards purchasing an antivirus software. Does anyone recommend a specific one. I might as well secure my machine just in case.
Some sensible precautions mac user can take:
Anti Virus
Clam AV is the gold standard in protecting *nix systems. It is free and open source and delivers superior protection compared to commercial anti-virus applications. Its only real failing is an ugly UI. Be sure to set it to update its virus definitions on a schedule. There is little need to have it scan your whole computer (this would slow things down considerably), just make sure it is set to scan you desktop, downloads, and email. It also comes with a contextual menu item so you can right click and tell it to scan things (this would be helpful when borrowing thumb drives).
Firewall
Be sure to turn on a firewall. Your Mac has one built in that you can turn on and manage easily using your system preferences. If you use a router to connect to the internet it also has a built in firewall that is probably off by default.
Non-Admin Account
By default your user account on your Mac is an administrator account. It is a good idea to create a second account as an administrator and demote your normal account to not be able to administer the computer. This will cause your computer to prompt you for the admin username and password when performing more invasive tasks such as installing applications. You will never need to actually log in using the admin account.
Little Snitch
Little Snitch is an application that alerts you when any application on your computer sends information out (sort of like the opposite of a firewall). Its a bit annoying at first as you slowly tell it what applications/connections to trust (and no longer alert you about), but eventually you never see it unless something unusual is occurring. Those who have been infected by this current trojan have reported that Little Snitch catches the trojan.
I thought some time ago that seeding torrents with trojans in would be an effective way of deterring piracy. Mind you, I'm surprised people are bothering pirating iLife and iWork. It's not like it'll break the bank to buy it legally.
