OSX Worm

http://www.macworld.com/news/2006/02/16/oompa

I'm sure Rev Blackwell†1 will let us know what implications may emerge on the security front.

By way of headline-level information for Joe User, how's this?:

SEEMS PRETTY HARMLESS FOR NOW.

However, with things like Automator lying around on Ye' Olde Grandmother's Mac (that's not a brand of whiskey, sir), one can imagine this could be a marker event ... a mockup if you will. After all, all those *nix weenies have a way easier time with (Mac)nix than WinNT. Let's see; your job is to figure out how to install and trigger a shell script on as many "open" computers as you can find, with out user intervention.††2
(NOT REALLY, BRUCE)

With the swelling of said slim install base, do you think most of the said same weenies had to, "like, study another 'For Dummies' manual?"

Now that a measurable number of broad-band connected !Macs! (soon to be !Intels!, thank you very much) are appearing on the WAN, hackers are like, "Hmmm. If I want several hundred completely open and unburdened Super Ultra Turbo Overblown Hemi Fusion Powered processors to use for "clandestine distributed computing" [aka an army of DDOS zombies], what ever should I do??? !hack Macs! :)"†††3

Let's keep it safe, oh gentle people people of the Internet. They're out there. "It's 10pm. Do you know where your [Macs] are?" Probably time for about 1% of your available geek time to be brushing up on WAN security.

--
Jeremiah Small
http://jsmall.us

†1(Sadly, he captured proof that I am a genuine geek. Where's Waldo?)

††2(on a private testing-LAN of course)

†††3(fictional concept)

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