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Journalists Cover Microsoft, Using Macs

It’s not an easy time for Microsoft — with Steve Ballmer having to field questions about being “buffoons” and an “evil empire”  at the shareholder’s meeting (.doc) — so when they get together “the world’s most influential technology pundits and online writers” (nb: we weren’t invited) for Mobius to discuss super-secret mobile tech you’d think [...]

Guide To Black Friday Apple Bargains: Cheap MacBooks, iPods and Accessories Galore

Here’s a guide for finding the best bargains on Apple-related gear during the infamous Black Friday sales on November 27. We’ve compiled a comprehensive list of gear from leaked photos of sales flyers and descriptions of sales.
The bargains include a 2.26 GHz MacBook + $150 gift card at Best Buy for $999.99 ; a 32GB [...]

Review: Voices Is Today’s Best Thing Ever, Grab It Now While It’s Cheap

New on the App Store is Voices from the clever folk at Tap Tap Tap. You can guess what it does.

Open it up, pick a silly voice. Helium is pretty silly. A microphone appears and the app even clears your throat for you (try it, you’ll see what I mean). Now speak your brains, and [...]

Review: Sony Walkman S540 Series Video MP3 Player

Press releases, you will hardly be surprised to hear, are rarely very interesting. But one arrived in my inbox a couple of weeks ago that made me double-take.
“Sony’s S Series Walkman,” it chattered, “is a serious challenger to the iPod Nano.” Gosh, really? Perhaps the Cult had better have a look at one, then, despite [...]

Hackers Update Mac Porn RSPlug Trojan Horse

Mac users are being warned to beware of a new scam by hackers to plant a Trojan horse. RS.Plug.D is a more flexible update of the RS.Plug.A threat discovered in 2007, a security software vendor claimed Tuesday.

Like the original, the new version relies on Mac users to visit malicious porn sites, according to Intego. Unlike RS.Plug.A, this trojan software opens a security hole enabling hackers to repeatedly download files to your system.

When on a suspect porn site, visits will be shown an error message: “Video ActiveX Object Error,” followed by a message that the browser is unable to view the video file and a request to start a download.

ActiveX is usually linked to Windows-related files, not Macs. Despite that, the Web page downloads a file (often named “cleanlive.dmg”) from a remote site. Once downloaded, the file automatically launches a trojan that contacts the remote site again.

To avoid downloading the Trojan file, you must quit your browser, according to the company. Simply choosing “Cancel” returns you to the original “error” message.

Mac users can disable the Trojan by using an anti-virus application.

About the author

Ed Sutherland

Ed Sutherland is a veteran technology journalist who first heard of Apple when they grew on trees, Yahoo was run out of a Stanford dorm and Google was an unknown upstart. Since then, Sutherland has covered the whole technology landscape, concentrating on tracking the trends and figuring out the finances of large (and small) technology companies.

Email the author | Read more posts by Ed Sutherland.

2 comments

    All that work to put a stupid Trojan on my Mac? Windows users have it so much easier!

    Also, ALL Mac users should turn off the ‘Open “safe” files after downloading’ option in Safari preferences.

    If you do this, the trojan described above will not auto-install.

    Since there are no “safe” files on the internet, Apple really should disable that feature once and for all.

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