It seems as though many Apple products have been at the receiving end of some pretty nasty scams and viruses recently. First, we had phishers going for iTunes users’ information, then they took a crack at MobileMe, and now, there is a virus circulating that targets iPhone users who run Windows. Many people have taken noticed to Apple’s recent boost in popularity, but those people aren’t always the good ones. This latest scam piggybacks on the popularity of the iPhone, and will subsequently wreak havoc on any unfortunate Windows system it can get its hands on.

In what is perhaps the coolest thing I have ever seen, Troika has created a “virus” for Mac, though its status as a virus is debatable. It lives on a USB key, and you have to have physical access to the computer to install it. The virus was created in an attempt to get back to the tme when viruses were just amusing little programs run to make the user chuckle. Nowadays, viruses are used for malicious intent, but back in the advent of the personal computer, “viruses [were] born out of the wit of early computer adopters, viruses whose sole purpose was to surprise and amuse.”

Troika says that they “chose to do it for mac as the platform is still a virgin territory.” If this is what Mac viruses will look like, I will download and install every suspicious looking thing that comes my way. The “virus” causes the menu bar to crack in half and fall, along with all desktop icons, to the bottom of the screen. Then, by turning the computer around, the icons and menu bar halves respond just as they would if they were really in a box.

The only problem? You can’t actually get it. If anyone can figure out how to get this, please comment. I want it really badly. Now, to see it in action, look after the break.

Mac users have been free of virus’ for about 31 years now, but 93% expect that Macs will have more malware and virus attacks. Sophos, a computer security company, conducted a survey with about 350 computer users and they believed that Apple’s Macintosh computers will be targeted more frequently in the future. Last November, this more »

F-Secure picked up on the fake 1.1.3 firmware prep that has been circulating on the third party iPhone apps download sites. The fake application was a trojan that when installed did nothing but when uninstalled removed quite a few third party applications. The app, ironically, was created by an 11 year old changing XML files. more »