RSSMac OS X Virus Writing Contest Halted
By Ed Oswald | Published March 29, 2005, 11:29 AM
Citing complaints from Mac users, as well as fears of legal action, Apple accessory manufacturer DVForge cancelled its virus-writing contest for Mac OS X. The company planned to award $25,000 to the first person who could successfully infect two of the company's G5 computers connected to the Internet running OS X 10.3 without antivirus or firewall protection.
Jack Campbell, CEO of DVForge, said he organized the contest after last week's comments by Symantec saying the Mac platform, with its increasing popularity, would soon be the target of virus and spyware authors.
"I became convinced by Friday that actually constructing a new virus that would self-propagate across the Internet, to multiple OS X Macs on which none of the OEM settings had been disabled, was an impossibility," he wrote in a statement.
However, after announcing the contest, Campbell and DVForge came under immediate criticism. Mac users complained that he was using the contest as a publicity stunt for his company, and "was putting the entire Mac world at risk."
Campbell disagreed with those who criticized the contest and argued the "overstated virus threat is costing our platform hundreds of thousands of new users, new users that would further fuel commerce in our platform, further improve the general health of our platform, and the increase breadth of products and services that migrate to our platform."
The company maintains the contest was only cancelled due to issues of legality. While Mac users complaints were taken into account, the contest would have gone on if there would have been no legal issues, Campbell said.
"I still am at the point where I really want to actually see the gun that's been supposedly aimed at my head for four years."
Yet another Marketing Gimmick from Apple to woo more customers and bring down sales of other brands, but I doubt it'll work. These things work out only for Microsoft and Linux OS. Even if a Mac or G5 is affected with a virus, would you really care? Do they really have statistics to prove that Mac is prone to virus attacks?
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|lol now why dont M$ have one of these :-D well i guess lil virus coders r haveing thier own contest o n thier own with no cash to be made oh well nice try apple but i guess its no good:) i have GMAIL invites care to have 1 email me mrfrostbite@gmail.com ...see its good 2 read sucky posts to the end good day 2 yall
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|You are aware that Apple has nothing to do with this competition, right?
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|What was the legal issue that would force a company to pull something like that down? The virus writer would be liable, not the company holding the contest, right?
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|This was obviously going to happen due to the type of person that uses a Mac. Someone that wanted to write a virus can setup a G5 as they did without the need of a cash reward. If someone had succeeded it would have helped secure the Mac world not put it at risk.
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|Exactly. When you make a vulnerability known, the problem that causes the vulnerability will be fixed.
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|Well said. Now the vulnerability still remains hidden and still remains...well, a vulnerability.
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|muajajajaja
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|to be exploited at a later date and then fixed... wot we getting at here.
in the end if the company is reliable enough to fix a vulnerability quickly, it doesn't matter if its discovered now or in a year.
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|Is this not the same response that open-source enthusiasts quote constantly? Not that it holds no water, because it is a good theory, but hackers consistently utilize the UNKNOWN chinks in an OS's armor. The moral of the story seems to be do not depend on the fact that Microslop is the biggest target because it has the largest audience.
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|Exactly. That's why I love to see new vulns. be found and abused by some for the many can learn and be protected in the long run.
And what's illegal about writing a peice of software (though a virus) and installing it with intent to cause damange to a machine you have permission to destroy - it's like hacking a PC you have Admin access on :-P
Proof of Concert is not illegal, use of it can be though.
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