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    Chris

    Oh Noes! A Virus for the Mac!

    posted by Chris on March 10, 2008 1:04 PM in Geek Culture

    I am a Mac-loving douchebag through and through. I drank the kool-aid and I freely pass it around. The kool-aid tastes good you guys, and one of the best things about the Mac is that there literally aren't any viruses for the system. No one is writing them, and the security of the operating system is near-inhospitable for the little guys to propagate. Troika art and design studio, however, have developed what they are calling the "Newton Virus" which uses the Mac's motion sensing software (originally used to brace the hard drive in the event you drop the thing). The effect is playful, and I'd love to see this released as an actual product.

    [link via TUAW]

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    comments (1) | permalink

    QaisAuthor Profile Page says:

    posted March 11, 2008 1:50 AM

    and the security of the operating system is near-inhospitable for the little guys to propagate

    Kind of but not really, though you are correct in your assertion that malware simply isn't written for OSX.

    I'm bothered by the tag of "virus" for this thing. It's gag-software you have to install via a USB drive, not remotely, and it doesn't accomplish the goals of most malware written for the PC, namely identity theft and resource accrual. Malware (for the most part) simply isn't about fucking up your computer anymore, that game got old as soon as people figured out you can't make money that way.

    Call it a gag, call it a practical joke, call it fucking space-cheese for all I care. Just don't call it a virus, because in doing so you scare the bejeesus out of the morons that switched to a Mac to avoid Windows malware because they couldn't be bothered to figure out how to appropriately secure their networks.

    What say you?!

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