RE: MP3 Trojan (Hoax? Marketing?)
RE: MP3 Trojan (Hoax? Marketing?)
- Subject: RE: MP3 Trojan (Hoax? Marketing?)
- From: MUG NEWS <email@hidden>
- Date: Tue, 13 Apr 2004 07:07:04 -0400
Someone said:
> Mac Trojan Horse - That's the truth?
Read this week's TidBits for a full run-down on all the
hubbub brewing around the announcement last Thursday of the
first Trojan horse to target Mac OS X.
It's merely a marketing scheme by the "security" company Intego
(VirusBarrier) to exploit a "proof of concept" trojan built to
demonstrate that an OS X executable app could be
embedded into an MP3 file.
While the prospect of proving it can be done is somewhat scary,
Intego unethically (IMHO) exploited the incident to pander
their own virus software and grab market attention.
Which they (obviously) did very successfully.
While it's a bit too wordy, (unlike Adam's usual 'get to the point'
journalism,) it's a good read and exposes some of the negative
aspects of the "security" industry's thirst for money.
What sticks in my mind is the proliferation of spin-off
companies which exploit and profiteer from virus, trojans,
worms and above all, spam.
They actually wish for evil things to happen... the more evil out
there attacking computer users, the happier and richer they become.
Considering the extremes that many will go to just to 'get hits'
and peddle their wares -- it's certainly not unrealistic to suspect
the next logical step, some actually taking a hand in
propagating the evils.
Recently there's been a rash of spam from spam-blocking software
producers... one actually says
"Wouldn't you like to end spam like this?"
But what does that say for the ethics of that company?
At the end of the day they're criminals* just like all the rest.
Read Adam's article:
Mac OS X Trojan Technique: Beware Geeks Bearing Gifts
http://www.tidbits.com/tb-issues/TidBITS-726.html
-----------------------------------------------------
:-)
Fred
Fred Showker
Editor-In-Chief
MUG (AACUG Mac User Guide)
http://www.aacug.org/MUG/
SUBSCRIBE: MUG InfoManager:
http://ellington.nmailer.com/mailman/listinfo/info
* Note: email harvesting is both a Federal crime, and in 29 states
a state crime. In Virginia it's a Felony. These spams I refer
to were received by three different "seed" addresses established by
aacug to trap email harvesters... making those anti-spam companies
felons.
_______________________________________________
augd mailing list | email@hidden
Help/Unsubscribe/Archives:
http://www.lists.apple.com/mailman/listinfo/augd
Do not post admin requests to the list. They will be ignored.