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Zombie Macs Launch DoS Attack

Posted by timothy on from the but-wait-you-told-me dept.

Cludge writes "ZDNet has a story (and several related articles) about how Symantec has discovered evidence of an all-Mac based botnet that is actively involved in a DOS attack. Apparently, security on the exploited Macs (call them iBots?) was compromised when unwary users bit-torrented pirated copies of iWork 09 and Photoshop CS4 that contained malware. From the article: 'They describe this as the "first real attempt to create a Mac botnet" and note that the zombie Macs are already being used for nefarious purposes.'"

7 of 757 comments (clear)

  1. Re:A matter of time by despisethesun · · Score: 5, Informative

    Virus infected warez have been a fixture of the PC world for well over a decade now, if not longer, and it hasn't really made a dent in piracy.

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  2. Re:Are you sure... by imamac · · Score: 5, Informative

    The really funny part is that you could download the full version from Apple for free as the "demo" just needs a serial number.

  3. It should be noted by Orion+Blastar · · Score: 5, Informative

    that a lot of "pirated" Bit Torrent software contains malware. Not just the Windows versions, but the Mac and Linux and BSD Unix versions as well.

    When you download pirated software you take a risk that it contains a trojan.

    I've even seen PDF files that had HTML exploits in it that got detected by antivirus. Read the comments on most Bit Torrent web sites the users will complain that it contains a virus. You don't have to download it to test it, the people who already downloaded it will give feedback that it contains a trojan or malware.

    When you download pirated software you are taking a big chance, it isn't worth it when a majority of things are infected. That is why I look towards Free and Open Source Software as alternatives to commercial products.

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  4. Re:Instant Karma... by roman_mir · · Score: 5, Informative

    I believe you are wrong in this case though, it's not a Mac that caught a virus, it may or may not be a virus, but it was installed onto the computer by the participating user on purpose. Except the user got a bit more functionality than he 'paid' for.

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  5. Comment removed by account_deleted · · Score: 5, Informative

    Comment removed based on user account deletion

  6. Re:Instant Karma... by TrancePhreak · · Score: 5, Informative

    Same with the Mac, did you not pay attention to that hacking contest?

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  7. Re:Instant Karma... by Mendoksou · · Score: 5, Informative

    I loved that article. My entire family is made up fo mac minions, and keep tellign me this kind of thing, despite the fact that I have never had a virus, never had to reformat except when I rebuilt the whole computer, get way more performance and paid one third as much as they did.

    Here's the article, btw.

    http://blogs.zdnet.com/security/?p=2941

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