Yet another virus??

[gus3049]

This was posted on our local forum this morning.

Happy PCing from a smug Mac user!!


TWO SUBJECT LINES of which to be AWARE.
Just verified this with Snoopes and it is REAL. ALSO WENT TO TRUTH OR FICTION, IT'S on their site also...
PLEASE INFORM EVERYONE you know!

1.) Emails with pictures of Osama Bin-Laden hanged are being sent and the moment that you open these emails your computer will crash and you will not be able to fix it!

If you get an e-mail along the lines of 'Osama Bin Laden Captured' or 'Osama Hanged', don't open the Attachment!!!!
This e-mail is being distributed through countries around the globe, but mainly in the US and Israel.

Be considerate & send this warning to whomever you know.

2.) You should be alert during the next few days:

Do not open any message with an attached file called 'Invitation' regardless of who sent it.

It is a virus that opens an Olympic Torch which 'burns' the whole hard disc C of your computer!!!!

This virus will be received from someone who has your e-mail address in his/her contact list, that is why you should send this E-mail to all your contacts.
It is better to receive this message 25 times than to receive the virus and open it.

If you receive an e-mail called 'invitation', even though sent by a friend. Do not open it!!!

This is the worst virus announced by CNN, it has been classified by Microsoft as the most destructive virus ever.

This virus was discovered by McAfee yesterday, and there is no repair yet for this kind of virus..

This virus simply destroys the Zero Sector of the Hard Disc, where other vital information is kept.

SEND THIS E-MAIL TO EVERYONE YOU KNOW!!!!

 

[Jensmith]

The e-mail itself sounds like spam to me. I always ignor those type of e-mails.

 

[myturn]

Sounds like you're Mac's got a virus causing it to send out spam Gordon.

Should'a got a Windows PC 8)

 

[wobblycogs]

If I may I'd like to offer some clam and collected virus / computer advice...

1) No computer or operating system is immune to viruses but some are certainly better than others. Using a Mac does not mean you have magic cloak of invulnerability - Macs have fewer viruses primarily because they have a much smaller market share so are less interesting to hackers (and the design of the OS is somewhat better than Windows). As Mac market share grows so will the number of viruses.
2) A virus can not damage the hardware of your computer*. It may corrupt the operating system and other applications to the point where you have to completely clean down the PC and re-install everything though. In other words you don't need to buy a new computer because you have a virus. Personally, I always fully reinstall any PC I find with a virus as it's the only way to be sure.
3) The body of the above post probably comes from a spam email. These emails are often sent out by spammers hoping to collect active email addresses. By forwarding them you are helping the terrorists erm, I meant spammers.
4) Never, ever, open an attachment in an email unless you are sure of who it is from and you were expecting to get an attachment from that person. If a viruses infects your friends machine it can send emails with attachments that appear to be from that person.
5) Run a virus scanner. There are plenty of perfectly adequate free virus scanners out there there's no need to buy one.
6) Don't visit "dodgy" websites from your main computer using IE - use something a little more obscure like Opera or Chrome as exploits are less likely to work. Better yet surf from inside a virtual machine, VMWare + Linux is free after all.

Feel free to pass around to friends and family...

* I remember many years ago reading a fascinating article where people tried to come up with ways of damaging regular PC hardware from software. Some might have worked back then but they are unlikely to work now.

 

[gus3049]

Ho ho, she has a PC!!

Her post to the forum was all in CAPITAL LETTERS a n d d o u b l e s p a c i n g. Seems scared of something.

I merely passed it on, partly in smugness of course but you never know, it could be genuine!!

We have been through all the usual arguments about the Mac/PC divide on another thread (yet again) I put this here as I said there that I had had enough for now!! Then I got the email from a PC user.

 

[myturn]

It's a hoax, intended to make people pass it on without verifying it's validity, which you did! :lol: :lol:

 

[gus3049]

It's a hoax, intended to make people pass it on without verifying it's validity, which you did! :lol: :lol:

Ah but I didn't did I. There is no possible link from me onto the forum. It was purely a reaction to the previous discussion and my usual somewhat doubtful sense of humour

 

[Malc]

There are always hoax emails going around like this. Just cut a bit of the wording out and google it

http://www.joewein.net/hoax/hoax-osama-virus.htm

Don't click on any links unless you know the source of the email

 

[RogerS]

If I may I'd like to offer some clam and collected virus / computer advice...

1) .....Macs have fewer viruses primarily because they have a much smaller market share so are less interesting to hackers (and the design of the OS is somewhat better than Windows). As Mac market share grows so will the number of viruses.
......

I really must take issue with this view propagated by many. The Apple OS is based on UNIX. UNIX has been around for years and years and years. It is open source. It has been pored over time and time again. It is inherently much more secure than Microsoft. Hackers may try attacking vulnerabilities in the application software but that is at a different layer from the OS. The only way that a virus is going to get into a Mac is if the user accepts it by entering in their Admin password. No OS in the world can guard against a dumb user.

 

[wobblycogs]

The unix design for want of a better term certainly makes for a more secure operating system but it would be wrong to say that it makes it totally secure. Unix style systems are still vulnerable to problems such as buffer overflows caused by bad coding and a host of similar problems and there have been no shortage of patches to the Linux kernel fixing such issues. Since Windows Vista users haven't run as a true admin on their system hence the annoyance that is UAC (of course you could turn this off).

Ideally we would have a micro-kernel based system so that the bare minimum of code is running at the highest level but so far no one has managed to make such a system that performs well.

 

[Pvt_Ryan]

I really must take issue with this view propagated by many. The Apple OS is based on UNIX. UNIX has been around for years and years and years. It is open source. It has been pored over time and time again. It is inherently much more secure than Microsoft. Hackers may try attacking vulnerabilities in the application software but that is at a different layer from the OS. The only way that a virus is going to get into a Mac is if the user accepts it by entering in their Admin password. No OS in the world can guard against a dumb user.

Actually this is a complete fallacy..

The problem is that the *nix crowd don't consider a virus capable of exploiting the system unless it gets outside of the user space or runs with root level permissions. This stems from the fact that historically *nix systems were primarily multi-user so a virus is only a threat if it could delete system / other user files. Now Joe Bloggs typically doesn't care about a system being rooted, but if a virus runs withhis credentials it can delete HIS files and access HIS data, and the damage is done. If you and your partner have separate logons then you lose your data, and any data that is shared that you have write permissions to, however your partner won't be affected.

I could write more in even more detail but I really hate responding to this sort of stuff as it always degrades..

Ryan

 

[wobblycogs]

Spot on Ryan.

A quick googling will show you that Mac viruses exist - the first for OSX was found in 2006 - so to claim they are totally immune by design is just plain wrong. Further more, just because they are tough to root it doesn't mean they are protected from a whole host of other attack vectors. A lot of viruses now use social engineering of one form or another to get root permissions which Macs are just as vulnerable too. Then there's issues like the Java serialization exploit which would let an applet read arbitrary files - it was fixed for over 6 months on Windows before Apple got round to releasing a patch.

You can be less vigilant with a Mac but to just assume you are totally safe is asking for trouble.

 

[RogerS]

Spot on Ryan.

A quick googling will show you that Mac viruses exist - the first for OSX was found in 2006 - so to claim they are totally immune by design is just plain wrong. Further more, just because they are tough to root it doesn't mean they are protected from a whole host of other attack vectors. A lot of viruses now use social engineering of one form or another to get root permissions which Macs are just as vulnerable too. Then there's issues like the Java serialization exploit which would let an applet read arbitrary files - it was fixed for over 6 months on Windows before Apple got round to releasing a patch.

You can be less vigilant with a Mac but to just assume you are totally safe is asking for trouble.

I agree with both of you. And I never said that Unix was invulnerable. No OS is.

And yes, there have been a few...a very few..nasties on the Mac but AFAIK all of them require the user to enter their admin password (which I mentioned) and, as you say, the fact that they have to do this borders on social engineering attacks. My main point, I guess, which perhaps I didn't express very well is that many less well-informed people then you guys come out with the statement that 'because of the low user base hackers haven't turned their attention to the Mac ...just wait until they do'...implying that there will be this huge increase in threats, viruses - call them what you will - and which, because of the reasons already given, I don't really buy. That's not to say that their won't be a problem...simply not on the scale that we have seen on Windows.

 

[Jacob]

.....

I could write more in even more detail but I really hate responding to this sort of stuff as it always degrades..

Ryan

20 years of mac/internet use, times two of us, on about 7 different machines mostly old and 2nd hand starting with LC 486
Not a single virus or hint thereof at any time.

Yes I know we are not 100% secure but it's looking good so far!

 

[Pvt_Ryan]

.....

I could write more in even more detail but I really hate responding to this sort of stuff as it always degrades..

Ryan

20 years of mac/internet use, times two of us, on about 7 different machines mostly old and 2nd hand starting with LC 486
Not a single virus or hint thereof at any time.

Yes I know we are not 100% secure but it's looking good so far!

I could say you've just been lucky, Now I didn't get internet until the 94 or 96. But I've used numerous windows machines since then and never had a virus on any of my machines.

I'm not anti-mac, they are just something I would never buy (I build my own). What I am "Anti" is the attitude I use XXX so I am safe from viruses/hackers/etc, it's a stupid notion that people spout.

 

[RogerS]

.....

I could write more in even more detail but I really hate responding to this sort of stuff as it always degrades..

Ryan

20 years of mac/internet use, times two of us, on about 7 different machines mostly old and 2nd hand starting with LC 486
Not a single virus or hint thereof at any time.

Yes I know we are not 100% secure but it's looking good so far!

I could say you've just been lucky, Now I didn't get internet until the 94 or 96. But I've used numerous windows machines since then and never had a virus on any of my machines.

I'm not anti-mac, they are just something I would never buy (I build my own). What I am "Anti" is the attitude I use XXX so I am safe from viruses/hackers/etc, it's a stupid notion that people spout.

Thing is though, what virus is actually out there currently in the wild that is going to affect Jacob's Mac?

 

[xy mosian]

I agree with both of you. And I never said that Unix was invulnerable. No OS is.

I am not pointing this response at RogerS particularly, merely using his assertation.
Where do 'Live Cd's' come in all this. Surely if an operating system is run from a non-writable medium, then it is very secure.

xy

 

[wobblycogs]

Live CD based OS'es are an interesting case. In some ways they are just as vulnerable as any regular OS but in others they are much more secure. Just because the OS is loaded from a CD it doesn't mean that the applications you are running don't have security holes in them. In fact because the applications probably aren't being updated as frequently it is more likely that you will be running a version with a known security issue. The benefit of a live cd though is that the virus can't survive a re-boot since you are effectively re-installing the OS each time you boot.

Of course a computer with no writeable storage isn't terribly useful as a general computer so presumably you will have some writeable space to store files. There is potential (especially on windows machines) for something nasty to get stored in that space but it would be difficult to get it to execute every time the machine was started so reducing the treat.

 

[gus3049]

I started this thread as a sort of jest as we were talking about Mac versus PC on another thread.

I have to say that in reality, I never give ANY consideration to virus, trojans etc. I'm not dumb enough to open any dodgy attachments or give my admin passwords to ANYONE.

The reason I use a Mac is all about user experience, nothing to do with what it does but how it does it. I am willing to bet that there a few Jaguar, BMW and Mercedes drivers who are PC users who cannot see any parallel.

 

[xy mosian]

wobblycogs, thanks for the reply. So if the live cd is the only operating system, with a dedicated hard drive? Sorry just me thinkng out loud.

xy