The Trojan that wasn't
FEAR, uncertainty and doubt swirled through the Macintosh community last week as an antivirus software company said it had uncovered the first Trojan horse software to hit Mac OS X.
Unix-based Mac OS X, released three years ago, has been completely free of viruses, worms and Trojans, in sharp contrast to the infestations that continually sweep the Windows world.
It's a feature that has helped persuade growing numbers of Windows users to switch to the Mac platform.
Mac users feel so safe that the majority don't even bother using an antivirus program — much to the chagrin of vendors of such programs.
So perhaps it's natural that sections of the press pounced on what they saw as a crack in Apple's rather holy image.
Within hours of US software company Intego broadcasting its "discovery", newswires and newspaper columnists who should have known better were shrieking the news.
"New virus targets Apple for Mac attack," cried The New York Post.
"Mac OS X flaw may leave Macs open to virus attacks," warned CNet.news.
There were many more.
Apple Computer headquarters at Cupertino, in California's Silicon Valley, said it was aware of the "potential issue" identified by Intego and was investigating it.
The big flap was quite unnecessary.
The piece of software involved — a mini-application renamed to look like an MP3 music file — in fact did no harm at all.
