Wednesday, 8 November 2006

Low-risk Macarena Mac OS X Virus Identified

IT security firm Sophos has advised Mac OS X users not to panic following the discovery of a new proof-of-concept virus. The worm, dubbed OSX/Macarena, has caused headlines in the press because new Macintosh malware is so rarely encountered compared to malicious code designed for Windows PCs. At the time of writing, Sophos had received no reports of any customers who have encountered the malware, and only source code versions have been uncovered.

The Macarena virus, which is only 672 bytes long, infects by appending itself to infected host files. Every infected file contains the strings 'MachoMan - roy g biv' and '26/10/06'. The virus only works on Intel-based Apple Macintoshes.

"This is a proof-of-concept virus with very limited spreading ability. Frankly you're more likely to be struck by lightning than troubled by Macarena," said Graham Cluley, senior technology consultant for Sophos. "No-one should panic, and while this is an indication that hackers are showing an increased interest in targeting the Mac OS X platform it is still a lot safer place to be than Windows."

Sophos advises all computer users, whether running PCs or Macs, to practice safe computing and keep their anti-virus software updated.