petersaville.net

A computer virus, thought to be the first to attack Apple’s Mac OS X operating system, has been identified by internet security companies.

The Leap-A, or Oompa Loompa, virus is a potentially malicious program that is disguised as a simple image file. Experts are worried that its discovery will prompt hackers to mount the first serious campaign against Apple users. The news is a blow to Apple’s reputation for security and to users of its Macintosh computers, which have long been regarded as far less vulnerable to virus attacks as PCs.

According to the times on line, some owners of Mac computers have held the belief that Mac OS X is incapable of harbouring computer viruses, but Leap-A will leave them shell-shocked. Some people are also blaming the fact MAC has moved away from its traditional hardware processor the power pc to the intel based pc.

I still love my Macintosh computers and I doubt I will be too concerned but I will be installing a new antivirus package. If they are starting to attack the Mac OS which is built on Unix/Linux and will only be a matter of time before Linux users will be feeling the heartache of virus makers creating bugs to attach Microsoft’s only real credible threat. Which is of course linux.

# posted by Peter Saville - IT Consultant @ 11:13 PM