Mmmm… could this be a marketing ploy?!
Apple has admitted shipping video iPods infected with Windows malware.
The company confirmed in a statement on its website that some video iPods available for purchase after 12 September 2006, shipped from a contract manufacturer in China, carry a malicious file called RavMonE.exe.
“We recently discovered that a small number, fewer than one per cent, of the video iPods available for purchase after 12 September 2006 left our contract manufacturer carrying the Windows RavMonE.exe virus,” Apple stated.
“This known virus affects only Windows computers, and up to date antivirus software which is included with most Windows computers should detect and remove it.
“So far we have seen fewer than 25 reports concerning this problem. The iPod nano, iPod shuffle and Mac OS X are not affected, and all video iPods now shipping are virus free.
“As you might imagine, we are upset at Windows for not being more hardy against such viruses, and even more upset with ourselves for not catching it.”
Graham Cluley, senior technology consultant at security firm Sophos, said: “It is most likely that some of the video iPods were plugged into a Windows PC for testing purposes at Apple’s Chinese contractor’s manufacturing plant, which is why only some of them are infected.
Last week it was McDonald’s turn to give out spyware.
Hmmm… let’s see…
Apple: Windows is not secure enough
Symantec: Windows will be too secure
Huh?
…we are upset at Windows for not being more hardy against such viruses, and ,even more upset with ourselves for not catching it.” ,
A little humility always helps smooth over a PR guffaw. Although accidents happen, no one likes them to happen to us.
#1 windows source code will be more secure with vista, windows users will not.
Apple virus for Windows…. is that love or what? LOL
I hope Apple sues Microsoft for making Apple look bad. How dare you, Mr. Gates! LOL
Sure if Windows had a 5% market share I’m quite sure it would be “hardy” against such viruses. More proof of the elitist snob attitude apple and their users have.
Ya know the old cliché, security though obscurity. Mac OS has little to no security problems because no “hacker” gives a rats ass about Mac OS systems to try to hack it because only a few people use them.
There’s more exploits for Linux and Unix since they have been around a lot longer, and run a lot of important “mission critical” servers and workstations. What severs do macs run? Oh whoopdie do, some web server on someone’s cable modem. Shit Windows has been able to do that since Windows 98SE. And no one is bitching about security about Win98SE’s web server. No one uses it!
Let these snob hybrid car driving Mac users continue to think they are special, protected, and better than everyone else. Since they don’t want to admit that people just ignore them anyway.
6 Since they don’t want to admit that people just ignore them anyway.
Ignore them except to note that they are: snobby, hybrid driving, think they’re better than everyone else, etc… 😉
Off topic, but related to Vista & MacOS.
Just saw this article:
http://tinyurl.com/ycnlx7
I’m not being too cynical, am I, to suppose that despite all the long faces and equivocal mumbles by MS execs when asked about Vista availability, November was never really in doubt?
The media’s shameless mockery of Microsoft for having blown Longhorn/Vista targets time and again has helped generate pent-up interest in Vista by turning mere delivery of the OS into page one news. (watch the headlines; the word “finally” will work its way into a lot of story titles)
To the dismay of so many observers, when Vista goes RTM, it’ll explode. It’ll shatter every standing record for software units and revenue in a given period of time. It’ll bury everything else in a mudslide of press coverage, and it’ll even make story #4 or #5 in non-technical publications and network news. I predict a BusinessWeek cover.
I think if you sell a (fairly expensive) consumer product with an included virus, you should take the hit without blaming the victims’ OS. Not even in an “we blame ourselves too, so we are not being snarky” way.
not quite OT: anyone believe that the latest widescreen iPod rumors to wit:
http://www.trustedreviews.com/article.aspx?art=3567
are deliberate Apple plants in an attempt to torpedo the Zune? Encourage consumers to hold off buying a Zune in the hopes that the uber-cool iPod will be out a month later, thus denting Zine’s opening sales figures.
In the alternative (1) this is just the resurfacing of the perpetual widescreen iPod rumor; or (2) this is for real, and Jobs does not worry about angering those who just bought the most recent incremental upgraded iPods.
#6 –
Hahahahahahahahaha “5%” hahahahahahahahahahaha “obscurity” hahahahahohohohohohohohohohoh “snob hybrid car driving” heeheeheeheeheeheeheeheeheehee yukyukyukyukyukyukyukyukyukyukyuk “ignore them anyway” AHHHHHahahahahahahahahahahahaha!!!!!!
– Good job of ignoring ’em, keed! KUTGW!
I mean, what would the Web be without trolls??
So Wondereth The (special, protected and better than everyone else) Ghoti
shouldnt apple have a product recall then?
arent they setting themselves up to be sued?
if I’d have bought a (useless) ipod, and got infected by malware becasue of it, i’d file a class action lawsuit and sue the shit out of apple
#6 – The “Security through Obscurity” line about OSX is just plain wrong now. For one, OSX doesn’t operate in “root” mode in normal operation. For malware to succeed in the environment, the user would have to have a willing part in it by clicking “ok” when something wants to install itself for instance.
You don’t get that luxury at all with Windows as it operates in a “root” like mode all the time. Things can install themselves without you even knowing about it….which is why there is all kinds of security 3rd party products out there that help in bogging down the system and eating up RAM.
Since the people have been touting how secure Macs are now wouldn’t you have thought that at least one major virus would have swept through the system by now, written by some enterprising hacker that wants to put these, as you said “elitist snobs”, in their place?
And let’s face it, with tons of Macs flying off the shelves now (read about Apples record profits released just this Wednesday which talks about high Macintosh sales), it’s hardly obscure.