From: Dave Lull <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
<<Mac users face rare threat By Munir Kotadia>>
<http://news.com.com/Mac+users+face+rare+threat/2100-7349_3 -5424883.html>
At the risk of sounding underconcerned, this whole story has been very poorly reported.
1. No examples of this "prank script" or "malware" (which is what it should accurately be called, it does not meet the definition of "virus" or even "trojan") have been seen in the wild.
2. It requires a LOT of *active user participation* in order to work and be spread. I'm sure there is a Mac user that stupid out there *somewhere,* but let's just say I don't think this will have the "distribution" that a typical PC virus does. :)
The c|net story seems a BIT more balanced than some I've read elsewhere, but it's still a good example of poor journalism in that it does not explain that the user would have to ACTIVELY HELP infect his own machine and willfully spread it to others outside his own LAN, a *huge* contrast to the way it works in the Windows world. Windows users reading this story will come away with the impression that "see, the Mac isn't any more secure than my machine," which is probably c|net's intent (they are hopelessly biasd against the Mac).
Bottom line: unless you are intensely stupid about opening and forwarding suspicious attachments, I don't think anyone here has ANYTHING to fear from this, and indeed we'll probably never even see an example in person.
_Chas_
Microsoft Chairman Bill Gates recently admitted that more than 30 million Windows customers experience crashes at least three times a day. -- NY Times, 25th July 2003
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