Trojan Horse Attacks Mac OS X Thanks to Apple Computer's rising star in the world of digital music, Mac OS X has become a target for malware authors. A Trojan horse, called MP3Concept or MP3Virus.gen, has been discovered that masquerades as an MP3 file. It hides in ID tags of the file and becomes activated when unwary users click on it, expecting to play a digital song. "This is the first native Mac OS virus we've found," said Brian Davis, U.S. sales manager for Intego, a Mac security and privacy firm that discovered the Trojan. The Trojan is benign, according to Intego. If launched, it doesn't do anything except access files in the System folder. But Intego warned that the code could be modified easily to delete files or hijack a machine and replicate itself through e-mail. "This is likely a test Trojan showing these things are possible," said Davis. "There's definitely an open door we don't want to leave open." The Trojan appears to be the first malicious code for Mac OS X, which was launched in March 2001. Until now, Mac users have prided themselves on running a system that has been largely virus-free. Few Mac OS X users run antivirus software, or are wary of double-clicking files they've downloaded or received in e-mail. That could change quickly. Nearly half of the executable files downloaded through Kazaa contain malicious code like viruses and Trojan horses, according to a recent study by security firm TruSecure. Out of 4,778 files downloaded in one month for the study, nearly half contained various types of nefarious code.
