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Large Prize Offered For Writing Mac Virus
Mordant writes "Some experienced Mac developers are offering a $25K prize to the first person to successfully infect two 'naked' Internet-connected Macs running stock Apple software. The best part is that if any Symantec employee succeeds in infecting the Macs, the prize goes up to $50K (Symantec has been fanning the flames of totally bogus "Macs aren't more secure, it's just that Windows is a bigger target" technical-equivalence propaganda)!" Update: 03/26 20:24 GMT by Z : Well, that was quick. Jack Campbell has cancelled the contest, after he "...was contacted by a large number of Mac users, and Mac software professionals who shared their thinking with me about the contest."
I would like to personally congradulate the winner of this contest. They can meet me in the woods behind my house.
Even a virus would be more useful.
No boom today. Boom tomorrow. There's always a boom tomorrow. - Cmdr. Susan Ivanova
1. symantec employee writes mac virus. ..or maybe not :)
2. fine print in employment contract says that virus effectively belongs to symantec.
3. symantec keeps the money and comes out in the black on mac antivir software for once!
And after 3 months, it ends up being a virus that requires WINE.
Is this another, "in small print", study payed for by Microsoft?
Of course it's running fine. After I root a box I always make sure I keep the patches up to date. Daddy has to keep his hoes clean you know!
I'm sorry, it doesn't appear that your browser properly supports the sarcasm tags in my post.
TONY: That's a nice computer you have their. Right Jonny? ..but..but OS X doesn't have any viruses.
JONNY: Yea boss, a real nice computer. Be a shame if something happened to it.
TONY: Like a virus. It would be a shame to see such a fine computer infected by a virus. Maybe you should get some...protection.
CUSTOMER:
TONY: You hear that Jonny? OS X doesn't have any viruses he says.
JONNY: What about this virus right here boss?
TONY: Yes, that is a very nasty virus. If that got released into the wild it could cause much trouble. Be careful where you load that virus Jonny.
TONY: [to customer] Jonny can be very clumsy. It wouldn't surprise me if he accidently put that on your network. Of course if you buy our...protection, you won't have to worry now will you...
MSH
s/their/they're/
s/theve/they've/
Remember kids, if you can replace your their or there with "they are" and have it make sense, it's really "they're". If you can replace your "theve" (?) with "they have" and have it make sense, it's really "they've". Contractions!
I am calling bullshit on this obvious lie. You had a clean instal, behind a firewall, with all the service packs installed, and in just 10 minutes after that with a direct connection to the net, someone infected it with spyware? That has to be bullshit.
Equal amount of FUD is spread by both sides - MS & OSS. Unfortunately, on slashdot only the MS FUD is called out with screaming headlines.
Are they going to man these two naked Macs with total noobs...
Actually, that pretty much sums up all Mac users. The real reason that there aren't viruses for Macs is that the virus writers would actually have to buy a Mac. So quite frankly, I'm not surprised.
I mean, they are big on security, right? Perhaps they could offer $50k to someone who can write a virus that infects Microsoft Windows?
(I like to call it "puncture-proof tires for a boat")
...Worth 400 points played as a coup-fourré.
To make life interesting, they were going to run those two macs with total naked noobs, to make it a fair contest.
Funny thing is, I think they will still win as Mac OSX is installed pretty secured.
I prefer the "u" in honour as it seems to be missing these days.
True. Otherwise, it's like the dumb guy who came home and found his wife in bed with the next-door neighbor and quickly grabbed a pistol from the dresser drawer. The wife and neighbor cringed, until the dummy put the pistol to his own head. The wife began to laugh. The dummy said, "Don't laugh TOO hard. You're next!"
Discussion System prefs link: http://slashdot.org/users.pl?op=editcomm
A few of these people are extremely well-regarded experts in the field of Mac OS X security.
Something tells me these "experts" are also mathematicians from MIT.
Jack Cambell is another Darl McBride, except he lacks Darl's credibility
It's not offtopic, dumbass. It's orthogonal.