MISCREANTS TARGET MAC OS X

[Fabian Ius]

MISCREANTS TARGET MAC OS X
      Mac owners have long enjoyed a blissfully virus-free existence, but 
Apple's foray into digital music may have changed all that. A Trojan
horse, 
dubbed MP3Concept or MP3Virus.gen, has wormed its way into circulation, 
masquerading as an MP3 file. "This is the first native Mac OS virus we've 
found," says Brian Davis, a sales manager for Intego, a Mac security firm 
that discovered the problem. The Trojan is benign, according to Intego. 
"This is likely a test Trojan showing these things are possible. There's 
definitely an open door we don't want to leave open," says Davis. The 
Trojan hides in ID tags of an MP3 file and is activated when clicked on by 
unwary users who think it's a music file. It then proceeds to access files 
in the System folder, and although it doesn't go beyond accessing at this 
point, Intego warns that it easily could be modified to perform more 
destructive acts, such as deleting files or hijacking a machine. The
sudden 
appearance of the Trojan is attributable to Apple's higher profile, thanks 
to the growing popularity of its iTunes digital music store, says Davis: 
"Given Apple's previous market share, OS X wasn't a challenge. As Apple 
becomes more visible, it's more of an attractive target."
 (Wired.com 9 Apr 2004)
http://www.wired.com/news/mac/0,2125,63000,00.html?tw=wn_tophead_2