[pchelpers] News:Worms in the Apple? Inqtana and Leap-A Burrow into Macs

If there's any silver lining to the recent Leap-A worm, this realization
is it:

Alas, Mac users, you do not live in the Shangri-La of operating systems
after all. Your Macs are vulnerable to worms, viruses, and other
malware, just like Windows users, so you best keep your security always
up-to-date, and your eyes on the prowl for suspicious attachments.

Internet security firms found the Leap-A worm in February 2006, the
first worm ever discovered that attacks Apple's OS X operating system.
The experts figured out that the digital parasite travels from victim to
victim by Apple's iChat instant messaging system.

Innocently enough, the worm forwards itself as a file titled
"latestpics.tgz" that comes with a JPEG graphic icon. In this deceptive
form, it travels to every contact on a user's buddy list. Meanwhile,
back on the user's computer, the worm places the text "oompa" in the
resource forks of infected programs as a marker, so as not to reinfect
the same files over and over.

As first, experts argued over whether or not Leap-A was a worm in fact,
or a Trojan horse. For those of us who'd rather not know the difference
between a worm and a Trojan horse-we'd rather just not get either one,
right?-a Trojan horse is a legitimate program that's been corrupted and
made to be destructive. Moreover, like those Greeks who left the
original Trojan horse at Paris' castle gates, someone has to plant the
Trojan horse on your computer, either as a download on a Web site,
e-mail, etc. Trojan horses cannot spread on their own.

Worms can. It's in their nature-or code-to spread and infect. Whoever
designs these malicious versions of viruses programs the worm to
disseminate and destroy. That makes Leap-A a worm for sure, because it's
designed to infiltrate via the iChat application.

More here:
http://www.laptopical.com/mac-worms.html
-- 
John Durham
Site http://modecideas.com
Server hosted on Ubuntu 4.10
Good advice is like good paint. It only works when applied.



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