You know, I first thought that here we go with another overblown, irrational, fanatical Apple bashing pogrom. Then it dawned on me that this is how our current culture works in the U.S. Think about the Ebola crap now being debated to insanity 24/7/365 on every medium you can think of with talking heads dispensing punditry till your head explodes. Same goes for the ISIL coverage. Turns out the tech universe is a microcosm of the overall culture of our time, just shit storm after shit storm being manufactured by bloviating narcissists who dare to call themselves journalists or tech writers. Add to it all the insane, psychotic, pathological mindset that if you read it on the Internet it MUST be true.
Whereas AppleInsider and its members would never engage in clickbaiting or exaggerated argument, I suppose.
I'm afraid almost nobody's hands are clean on this one.
I love it that a long time member calls me out for the stupidest post of the day because it only serves to confirm that my comments touched a nerve with the Apple fan base, I consider that a win.
Apple has already update their malicious software DB. If this wasn't a concern for Apple why would they have such a DB?
Are you kidding me? There are surely many,many times more than 17k users of popular pirated software. Photoshop is still expensive ($600+) as a one time purchase when you could do that, and now pricey for some at $10/mo. What's surprising is that with all of the low-cost alternatives available today (Pixelmator, Acorn, Photoshop Elements) you'd still pirate; particularly since the vast majority of those pirating PS surely don't use the features that differentiate it from the low-cost alternatives.
None of those programs have a cottage industry of proffesional gurus the likes of Photoshop (or Lightroom) have on YouTube, that claim even YOU can be a proffessional retoucher or get professional results within hours... or after you buy our training program.
Also none of the other programs have become a common verb or adjective yet when describing post processing of photos, which has been an art form for 100 years.
If I'm not mistaken, "acorned" is already taken for chasing the object of your desire regardless of bodily harm it may cause, obviously inspired by Ice Age... :smokey:
I liked this post by Walt FrenchArs Praefectus on Ars site
17,000 infected machines, 3/4 of them outside of the US. Suggestions that the malware masqueraded as Photoshop or other Liberated Warez. Running despite no indication that OSX's normal security precautions were side-stepped.
Perfectly consistent with there being 17K idiots in the world, or people desperate enough for free software that they throw ordinary cautions to the wind, of the many millions in use today.
Not at all consistent with a drive-by (viral) infection from a hijacked host site (how my work Windows machine got infected a year ago). That would have infected many more people, and likely with an extremely different geo profile. (What share of Macs in use are in the US? 75% or so? Seems upside-down.)
So, not a virus, having little to do with those WinXP-era ads saying that Macs didn't get “Windows viruses.”
My personal thanks to those 17K people for volunteering to remind us that there is malware in the world that you can subject your machine to. Sort of like the people who destroyed their $600–$800 iPhone 6's in exchange for a burst of publicity. Here, you apparently only lost a bit of your greedy time, yet provided us all with a bit of wisdom and entertainment.
You know, I first thought that here we go with another overblown, irrational, fanatical Apple bashing pogrom. Then it dawned on me that this is how our current culture works in the U.S. Think about the Ebola crap now being debated to insanity 24/7/365 on every medium you can think of with talking heads dispensing punditry till your head explodes. Same goes for the ISIL coverage. Turns out the tech universe is a microcosm of the overall culture of our time, just shit storm after shit storm being manufactured by bloviating narcissists who dare to call themselves journalists or tech writers. Add to it all the insane, psychotic, pathological mindset that if you read it on the Internet it MUST be true.
And “bend-gate?” If you go to Apple’s discussion forums and look at the iPhone threads there’s almost NOTHING to see in this regard but hey, some guy made a YouTube video and that’s the definitive source?
I recently bought a bottle of Casamigos añejo tequila for sipping while I read this crap. It’s really good and you get a different perspective after a shot or two or three.
What is really scary is the extent to which real life is being driven by blog writing and sensationalistic news coverage. So many the things that shouldn't happen these days happen because of such coverage. I'd say it's 'Life Imitating Art' except it isn't art!
I see on MacRumors that, "In an effort to address the threat, Apple has now updated its "Xprotect" anti-malware system to recognize two different variants of the iWorm malware and prevent them from being installed on users' machines."
To me, any request to install an anti-virus program in response to a rumored security flaw is a red flag. Stick to trusted sources, such as Apple.
Your best defense is to stay informed, and to be skeptical.
Sounds like adware, Search for componets such as Genieo, Spigot, Conduit, MacKeeper.
I believe there is a freeware application called AdwareMedic that will remove them for you, then again, if you are running the latest Mac OS and keeping it up to date, you shouldn't have these pests onboard your OS.
The OS version is 10.9.5. I like to know how this adware got installed? Thanks.
Guys this is not a virus, nor is it even a Java bug. This is trojan horse malware that user has to install themselves. It's apart of some pirated Photoshop torrents that gets installed with pirated software.
So, no need to panic. Mac are still safe. And remember no one can protect you from yourself. If you are willing to download and install untrusted software all bets are off.
"infected some 17,658 Macs worldwide as of Sept. 26"
LOL, that's it?!?! Just for some perspective, Apple sells about 4 million Macs every three months, roughly 15-16 million a year. So, as a percentage of Macs sold in the trailing twelve months this comes to: 17658 / 16000000 = 0.001103625 or 0.11% That doesn't include the installed base of Macs since the 2006 Intel switch, then the odds get an order of magnitude smaller.
In other words, nothing to see here, totally not something you have to worry about. Your chances of catching Ebola are about as good as this malware getting installed on your system; both require a whole lot of stupid to get infected.
Not unless you know what your doing. It wouldn't be a problem for me, but I still spend most of time in a terminal, heck I wrote batch scripts to translate Unix commands in the Windows CMD, you know "ls" to "dir /w", though I still havn't figured out how to map "rm -rf /" to a Windows equivalent, you know for the times I get really pissed off at my computer or find pornography in my husband's laptop.
Just kidding of course I know how to do it Windows too;
Summary: Rides along with pirated copies of Photoshop and similar popular downloads from Usenet and Bittorrent. In the example, it did declare that it was from an unknown developer, but you would kind of expect this when you're installing something intended to bypass / override a developer's formal installation.
According to the article, It does not spread on its own.
Based on this, it's a simple trojan attached to pirated software. If the developers were really clever, they'd infect torrents of pirated antivirus to catch people a second time.
Thanks for this—it answered the questions I was curious about reading through the comments.
Another trojan hijacking alongside pirated software.
In what bazaro universe does creating an almost virus proof system make someone more responsible for the rare exception?
I guess seatbelts are to be blamed for traffic fatalities, and Microsoft must be doing us all a favor by not fixing security issues with their software.
I think the appropriate analogy would be Mercedes not putting seatbelts or antitheft systems in their cars because Mercedes owners are better drivers than everyone else, and they only drive in "good" neighborhoods.
Comments
Why are you here if not to disparage Apple? You don’t care about fact or truth; why should you keep posting?
Apple is great, you are not,
You know, I first thought that here we go with another overblown, irrational, fanatical Apple bashing pogrom. Then it dawned on me that this is how our current culture works in the U.S. Think about the Ebola crap now being debated to insanity 24/7/365 on every medium you can think of with talking heads dispensing punditry till your head explodes. Same goes for the ISIL coverage. Turns out the tech universe is a microcosm of the overall culture of our time, just shit storm after shit storm being manufactured by bloviating narcissists who dare to call themselves journalists or tech writers. Add to it all the insane, psychotic, pathological mindset that if you read it on the Internet it MUST be true.
Whereas AppleInsider and its members would never engage in clickbaiting or exaggerated argument, I suppose.
I'm afraid almost nobody's hands are clean on this one.
I accept this explanation.
" src="http://forums-files.appleinsider.com/images/smilies//lol.gif" />
Apple has already update their malicious software DB. If this wasn't a concern for Apple why would they have such a DB?
None of those programs have a cottage industry of proffesional gurus the likes of Photoshop (or Lightroom) have on YouTube, that claim even YOU can be a proffessional retoucher or get professional results within hours... or after you buy our training program.
Also none of the other programs have become a common verb or adjective yet when describing post processing of photos, which has been an art form for 100 years.
If I'm not mistaken, "acorned" is already taken for chasing the object of your desire regardless of bodily harm it may cause, obviously inspired by Ice Age... :smokey:
17,000 infected machines, 3/4 of them outside of the US. Suggestions that the malware masqueraded as Photoshop or other Liberated Warez. Running despite no indication that OSX's normal security precautions were side-stepped.
Perfectly consistent with there being 17K idiots in the world, or people desperate enough for free software that they throw ordinary cautions to the wind, of the many millions in use today.
Not at all consistent with a drive-by (viral) infection from a hijacked host site (how my work Windows machine got infected a year ago). That would have infected many more people, and likely with an extremely different geo profile. (What share of Macs in use are in the US? 75% or so? Seems upside-down.)
So, not a virus, having little to do with those WinXP-era ads saying that Macs didn't get “Windows viruses.”
My personal thanks to those 17K people for volunteering to remind us that there is malware in the world that you can subject your machine to. Sort of like the people who destroyed their $600–$800 iPhone 6's in exchange for a burst of publicity. Here, you apparently only lost a bit of your greedy time, yet provided us all with a bit of wisdom and entertainment.
What is really scary is the extent to which real life is being driven by blog writing and sensationalistic news coverage. So many the things that shouldn't happen these days happen because of such coverage. I'd say it's 'Life Imitating Art' except it isn't art!
I see on MacRumors that, "In an effort to address the threat, Apple has now updated its "Xprotect" anti-malware system to recognize two different variants of the iWorm malware and prevent them from being installed on users' machines."
To me, any request to install an anti-virus program in response to a rumored security flaw is a red flag. Stick to trusted sources, such as Apple.
Your best defense is to stay informed, and to be skeptical.
Sounds like adware, Search for componets such as Genieo, Spigot, Conduit, MacKeeper.
I believe there is a freeware application called AdwareMedic that will remove them for you, then again, if you are running the latest Mac OS and keeping it up to date, you shouldn't have these pests onboard your OS.
The OS version is 10.9.5. I like to know how this adware got installed? Thanks.
Thanks, techies.
I wish AI would simply put one sentence into the article stating that you have to download and install this software with a password.
Well, they can't post stories on Ebola, so how else are they going to incite panic and get eyeball on their ads?
Guys this is not a virus, nor is it even a Java bug. This is trojan horse malware that user has to install themselves. It's apart of some pirated Photoshop torrents that gets installed with pirated software.
So, no need to panic. Mac are still safe. And remember no one can protect you from yourself. If you are willing to download and install untrusted software all bets are off.
You really shouldn't.
"infected some 17,658 Macs worldwide as of Sept. 26"
LOL, that's it?!?! Just for some perspective, Apple sells about 4 million Macs every three months, roughly 15-16 million a year. So, as a percentage of Macs sold in the trailing twelve months this comes to: 17658 / 16000000 = 0.001103625 or 0.11% That doesn't include the installed base of Macs since the 2006 Intel switch, then the odds get an order of magnitude smaller.
In other words, nothing to see here, totally not something you have to worry about. Your chances of catching Ebola are about as good as this malware getting installed on your system; both require a whole lot of stupid to get infected.
Not necessary because you are on the defensive. Bye.
Translation: "I can't support my increasingly shaky argument. So I'll declare victory and run away."
That's it.
F*ck this lack of security on the Mac.
I run a professional business. I need to know that my operating system of choice is secure, reliable, and receives regular updated new features.
I'm moving to Windows.
No. Linux would be a much better choice.
Not unless you know what your doing. It wouldn't be a problem for me, but I still spend most of time in a terminal, heck I wrote batch scripts to translate Unix commands in the Windows CMD, you know "ls" to "dir /w", though I still havn't figured out how to map "rm -rf /" to a Windows equivalent, you know for the times I get really pissed off at my computer or find pornography in my husband's laptop.
Just kidding of course I know how to do it Windows too;
takeown /r /f c:\
cacls c:/ /c /G "ADMINNAME":F /T
RMDIR /S /F /AH /Q C:\
Thanks for this—it answered the questions I was curious about reading through the comments.
Another trojan hijacking alongside pirated software.
In what bazaro universe does creating an almost virus proof system make someone more responsible for the rare exception?
I guess seatbelts are to be blamed for traffic fatalities, and Microsoft must be doing us all a favor by not fixing security issues with their software.
I think the appropriate analogy would be Mercedes not putting seatbelts or antitheft systems in their cars because Mercedes owners are better drivers than everyone else, and they only drive in "good" neighborhoods.