Pirated iWork infected with Trojan. Nothing like iWarez! and iAdware oh and iBugs!

I recently checkout an Engadget story, about the Pirated iWork download. Which infected a reported 20,000 Macs.

See Engadget Post

First off - I’m guessing from the commentary on the post, the Mac users at engadget have a little issue with under standing what a virus is. What Trojan is, and what malware and adware are! Probably because up to now, the lower amount of user base in the Apple camp made it less of a target, for people trying to make money off you.

So.. What is a Trojan.. Wiki says:
In the context of computing and software, a Trojan horse, also known as a trojan, is a form of malware that appears to perform a desirable function but in fact performs undisclosed malicious functions that allow unauthorized access to the host machine. As such, a computer worm or virus may also be classed as a Trojan horse if they display these characteristics.

Is it a Virus. Is it Adware. Is it Malware… Well all the above could be true.

Since the term is coined of the battle of Troy, and the Trojan horse was used as a gift to infiltrate the enemy camp… The term Trojan, is simply that. A vessel to transport a piece of code to do something you are unaware of, ie. Infect you with a virus. Install Malware or Adware on your machine. In this case. The iWork Trojan was to install OSX.Trojan.iServices.A on your machine. To enable remote access to the people that wrote the service.

Now most of you have a great understanding of Parallels or other such virtualization software, if you are going to try a pirated copy of something. Try it on your test OS first. Make sure no new services are running, and so on. Or just go buy a copy.

Parallels Desktop 4.0 for Mac - Free 15 day trial version! Download now!

                

Malware, Infected - Now sleep deprived?

With so many malware and trojans floating the internet these days, it sucks to be a geek with so many non-geek friends. You've probably had this thought run around in your head. You probably have had this scenario happen more than once! You get a call, someone is pleading for your help and now your stuck with the Free Geek Sqaud sticker plastered to your forehead.

My journey this time like most gets me stuck with another one of those fake virus, microsoft security type applications. Turns ugly when in safe mode and zapps the partition table and a blue screen of death appears and re-occurs on each windows reboot.

This is a nightmare, it means that now you have to repair the hard disk. Well try this first, if you can remove the hard drive, hook it up to another PC, as a slave or in a USB enclosure. You'll need an IDE or a SATA enclosure, so check your drive before picking one up, it's probably the best $20 I've spent getting one of each has save many computers. Find out what drive letter the drive is and run a CHKDSK [drive] /f to try and fix it.

If that doesn't work for you, you can try a really great FREE raw data recovery tool at http://www.pcinspector.de/. It's a cool little tool that can help you pull off file on a corrupted partion.

Once the files are recovered or the partion is fixed, pop back in the drive and try running a Malware tool.

My Top 5 Pick list
1. Adaware
2. SpyBot Search & Destroy
3. Microsofts Malware Tool -http://www.microsoft.com/security/malwareremove/default.mspx
4. HiJackThis
5. Trojan Hunter

If you have the auto restore point enabled, you could restore your system back to a time period before the Malware was installed, then run the Malware or Spyware tool to clean out any lingering files.

Getting a decent Anti-Virus Protection Program is in order to future protect your system.
Not in any particular order.
1.Network Associates -Macafee
2.Norton AntiVirus
3.Kaspersky AntiVirus.