{"id":548089,"date":"2006-02-23T15:32:17","date_gmt":"2006-02-23T15:32:17","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/localhost:8888\/wordpress\/technology\/548089-hackers-target-apple-s-operating-system.html"},"modified":"2006-02-23T15:32:17","modified_gmt":"2006-02-23T15:32:17","slug":"hackers-target-apple-s-operating-system","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/technology\/548089-hackers-target-apple-s-operating-system.html","title":{"rendered":"Hackers target Apple’s operating system"},"content":{"rendered":"

Although experts said the viruses discovered so far were relatively benign, the news represents a blow to Apple, whose software has avoided the relentless virus attacks that have plagued Microsoft’s Windows operating system. <\/font><\/p>\n

News of the security threat emerged last week after Macintosh users reported that an image file purported to contain screen shots of a forthcoming OS X update actually contained a computer worm. Since then, at least two other OS X security threats have emerged, including several variants of a worm that propagates through a vulnerability in the popular BlueTooth hands-free software suite. <\/font><\/p>\n

Andrew Welch, a software developer who helped pick apart the first OS X virus after it was discovered on Thursday, said he was tempted to label the discovery a ?non-event?. <\/font><\/p>\n

"[The virus is] poorly written, can’t spread beyond your local network, is unlikely to infect anything on most machines, and needs user interaction to do anything at all," he wrote on a bulletin board located on his software company’s website. <\/font><\/p>\n

F-Secure, a Finnish anti-virus company, said that three variants of a Macintosh computer worm discovered on Tuesday could be classified as "proof of concept" viruses because they contained internal controls that allowed them to work only in a controlled environment, and not in the real world. <\/font><\/p>\n

However, it warned that hackers could develop similar viruses that lacked such controls and could spread "in the wild". <\/font><\/p>\n

The Apple platform’s relative security compared with Microsoft’s Windows operating system has long been a point of pride among Macintosh fans. <\/font><\/p>\n

But some industry watchers have maintained that Apple’s relative safety is due mostly to the fact that Microsoft, whose software powers more than 90% of the world’s computers, makes a bigger, more tempting target for enterprising hackers. <\/font><\/p>\n

That may be beginning to change as Apple basks in the glow of its popular iPod personal music player. The iPod’s so-called "halo effect" was thought to be partly responsible?for a big increase in converts to the Macintosh platform last year. <\/font><\/p>\n

Shares in Apple rose 0.2% to $69.08. <\/font><\/p>\n

Inet-Bridge<\/i> \u00a0||\u00a0 <\/font>Discuss this article<\/font><\/a> <\/font><\/p>\n

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Hackers have begun developing the first viruses targeting Apple Computer’s flagship OS X operating system, raising security concerns as the computer maker steps up its battle for market share against PC makers and its software rival Microsoft.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":23,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_sma_x_autopost_status":"idle","_sma_x_autopost_error":"","_sma_x_post_id":"","_sma_facebook_post_id":"","_sma_instagram_post_id":"","_sma_threads_post_id":"","_sma_x_attempts":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[17],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-548089","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-technology"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/548089"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/23"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=548089"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/548089\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=548089"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=548089"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=548089"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}