Small number of iPods shipped with Windows virus!

paulmt · Post by **paulmt** » Wed Oct 18, 2006 11:03 pm

http://www.apple.com/support/windowsvirus/

psyXonova · Post by **psyXonova** » Thu Oct 19, 2006 2:17 am

LOL

That's a good one, I wonder how they managed to ship those iPod's with viruses....

Steegy · Post by **Steegy** » Thu Oct 19, 2006 4:28 am

Apple, with a Windows virus. Hahahahahahahaha

Apple wrote:...we are upset at Windows for not being more hardy against such viruses...

They must be joking right?
It is their fault that they have a virus, so why mentioning anything about Windows... that's just sooooooo lame!

sunspot · Post by **sunspot** » Thu Oct 19, 2006 4:28 am

The company that images the drives for the iPods in China uses Windows machines to store the image. Those machines were infected, and in turn they deposited the virus code onto the iPods.

It wouldn't be such an issue if Windows machines didn't try to autorun code off of removable drives by default. Another stupid default behavior on the part of Windows that leaves systems vulnerable to all sorts of viruses and trojans.

Steegy · Post by **Steegy** » Thu Oct 19, 2006 4:34 am

Another stupid default behavior ...

What about the cd that automaticly starts playing when you put it in your car? Is that stupid too? No, it's just ease of use (something Apple is so well-known for). Autorun for data-cd's is very handy also, because otherwise 25% of the computer community wouldn't have managed to install their software from the cd...
BTW: as with everything, you should first be certain that a cd/program is decent. It's the users fault to put everything he can in his computer and then blame other people for what he (unknowingly) did by himself. (Now Windows uses a "security warning" when you open "unknown" programs, to make sure that the user thinks twice, something he should've done anyway. So for good computer users, that message doesn't really change anything.)
The ones that drop a cigarette in a forest "and didn't knew that it would cause the whole forrest to go on fire"... do they have to blame the forrest for that?

Don't think this to serious OK. I'm just against all that anti-Microsoft crap. If you don't like Windows, then use linux (not recommended yet) or apple (to expensive and limited in use?)

Post by **jiri** » Thu Oct 19, 2006 6:01 am

They must be joking right?
It is their fault that they have a virus, so why mentioning anything about Windows... that's just sooooooo lame!

I agree with Steegy, Windows have their own problems, but what Apple wrote is pretty stupid.

Jiri

Post by **Lowlander** » Thu Oct 19, 2006 9:34 am

Yeah, if Apple would have a decent quality control program this wouldn't have happened. Apple known for quality has shown lately that this isn't true anymore. They botched their intel laptops in various ways like a covered vent exhaust, too short cable and bad batteries. They botched those iPod nano's with the scratching issue. They botched iTunes 7 with a number of issues. Mac OS regularly receives patches. All this Apple tries to hide as much as they can.
Now they can blame others as all this issues are probably occuring at their suppliers. But still Apple should have a quality control system that verifies that the products they sell are of quality.
In my opinion Apple has become just like every other software/hardware company, but ask a premium price for their products.

MCSmarties · Post by **MCSmarties** » Thu Oct 19, 2006 9:53 am

Quote from BBC News

In its statement announcing the discovery, Apple said that less than 1% of video iPods sold after 12 September were despatched with the virus onboard.

Less than 1% of the iPods sold in the last month?
Hmmm how many iPods are Apple exactly selling per month?
I have a feeling that the number of infected iPods is not that small after all...

Is a class action lawsuit coming? That would be fun!

Post by **Lowlander** » Thu Oct 19, 2006 10:39 am

A funny response from someone at Microsoft.

Steegy · Post by **Steegy** » Thu Oct 19, 2006 1:00 pm

Great. And now a funny Apple parody.

sunspot · Post by **sunspot** » Thu Oct 19, 2006 5:27 pm

Steegy wrote:
Another stupid default behavior ...
What about the cd that automaticly starts playing when you put it in your car? Is that stupid too?

No, but a CD won't hijack control of your car - a CD-ROM inserted into a Windows machine could contain software that hijacks your PC, and giving such software the ability to autorun by default is nuts.

There's no reason why Microsoft couldn't have come up with a solution that was equally user-friendly but provided at least some protection against malware. As just one example, they could have a standard menu that pops up whenever software is detected on a disc that's been inserted, asking the user if they actually want to run program "x". This would be just as easy to use as the current (broken) autorun facility, without the (glaringly obvious) security hole.

psyXonova · Post by **psyXonova** » Thu Oct 19, 2006 5:42 pm

Such an option would only add one more irritating window... Most ppl would answer yes without even looking at what the dialog says. Take a look at virus statistics maintained by any of the known companies (F-Secure, McAfee, Symantec, Avast etc). The virus causing the most infections are all propagating via e-mails... Now, any mail client (Outlook, Thunderbird, Eudora etc) asks before running an attachement. In fact, they pop up a window very similar to the one you described... but guess what more than 10000 every day ignore this message and go on...
Now, is this a Microsoft fault??? Same things with activeXs. You visit a site, ussualy suspicious (crack/porn related) a same window pops up "Do you want to install MyCrack.zip..... This is from an unknown vendor.... Proceed anyway???".... You click yes... and thats it...
Ofcourse there is always a sollution. Use an antivirus. And cost is not a problem, neither are the resources. I use Avast! which is totaly free for personal use and very light (plus very effective).
And to end all those have a main difference with the iPod case... you dont pay them 400$ to end up with a virus in your system.....

sunspot · Post by **sunspot** » Thu Oct 19, 2006 9:36 pm

psyxonova wrote:Such an option would only add one more irritating window... Most ppl would answer yes without even looking at what the dialog says.

I'd much rather be "irritated" by the occasional permission window than have my machine compromised by some virus or spyware. And the odds of a social exploit virus propagating via removable media are slim. What would the virus say it was? Social exploit viruses work via e-mail because people expect to receive attachments - like Word documents or PowerPoint presentations - from their friends and coworkers. Having a brand new drive or a CD you popped in announce it wants to run some oddball software would elicit a lot more suspicion from users. As it stands right now, ANY rogue code can spread via this vector, completely unchecked. That's just idiotic.

I think Vista may finally remedy this behavior. If so, it's about time. I went thru the hassle of disabling Autorun on my Windows box years ago, and haven't missed it a bit since. If I want my computer to run a new piece of software, I'll tell it so.

psyXonova · Post by **psyXonova** » Fri Oct 20, 2006 4:11 am

@sunspot
You may be right about the autorun behaviour being annoying for a lot of users (i also have disable it). But dont bet on that social exploit stuff. It wasnt long ago that all viruses were propagating via floppies and CD's since very few people had internet. The main reason viruses are spreading through the net now its because virus programmers realize that is the best medium they have to spread their product.
Sony managed to infect several millions PCs by launching their setup programm from inside an Audio CD (well a hybrid one to be specific)
Same thing could happen again...

Anyway, check out this article. I Suggest you read it all but for those who are in a harry take a good look at figures 5-8.
Notice that OSX anf Linux have more disclosed vulnerabilities than Window!! Also notice that Windows vulnerabilities keep dropping each year while the Mac ones are rising!!!
Now, isnt this totally the opposite of what most ppl think???

Steegy · Post by **Steegy** » Fri Oct 20, 2006 5:27 am

@general public

Now, isnt this totally the opposite of what most ppl think???

Most people are plain computer-dumb and believe/do everything the're said.
Examples: like that Mac is safe and Linux is the best, but for an unknown reason still not conquering Windows. And don't come with this "Microsoft pays/forces others (companies) to use their systems so it's normally that they are still the biggest." Do you never wonder why Apple (still to expensive) and Google became so big? Did Microsoft give them money?
About Apple: why does it keep on forcing that QuickTime on pc's? Why doesn't my iRiver work on iTunes? Why don't they sell MacOS for pc's?

Why do you think that a lot of "real advanced" hacking programs can only run on Unix/Linux? I bet you didn't know that, did you? Because they don't have that much exploiting possibilities in Windows. Unix/Linux are very open OS'es. If everyone would switch now from Windows to one of these, I (really) think it could mean the end of the "good computer times" as we're in now (if we're just talking about security, not usability/ease of use/appearance because these are bad too on those systems). BTW: Linux is (luckily) still for people that really know their computer.
Mac is mostly used for video&photo-editors. These people tend to get less virusses, spyware, ... that the "mass" and has it ever occured to you that this could be the reason why there are less problems for those people, using "their own" platforms (i.e. Linux/MacOS).

I guess that the people reading this are member of the computer-smart people, so don't feel offended.

Moral of the story: Be Critical (and if you think you are, really be critical...)

Tagline: the more possibilities for functionality, the more possibilities for exploits...

Small number of iPods shipped with Windows virus!

Small number of iPods shipped with Windows virus!

iPod Virus