What is Digg?134 Comments
- sundancekid503, on 10/12/2007, -18/+113"As you might imagine, we are upset at Windows for not being more hardy against such viruses, "
Wow, that's weak. Apple's not really in a position to take any cheap shots on this one. - picaman, on 10/12/2007, -4/+94Apple says, in the link: "As you might imagine, we are upset at Windows for not being more hardy against such viruses, and even more upset with ourselves for not catching it."
I'm an Apple fan, but that's really a cheap shot at Windows. It's Apple's responsibility to ship clean product. - smart1979, on 10/12/2007, -20/+89"As you might imagine, we are upset at Windows for not being more hardy against such viruses, and even more upset with ourselves for not catching it."
ouch! - meamog, on 10/12/2007, -1/+60Umm... not to rain on your parade, but if you had read the story, it's on apple.com. I don't think Microsoft starts rumors there.
- aquax, on 10/12/2007, -1/+46Very shortly after the release of the 5.5G iPods, there was a user on one of the various iPod forums (I can't recall which one), who claimed there was a virus on his iPod from the factory. It was quickly dismissed as probably caused by plugging it in to his work PC, but it appears perhaps he was correct, it did come from the factory like that.
- pipdip, on 10/12/2007, -6/+37I'll admit that it's more than a little funny for Apple to have a Windows virus on their equipment. Even more with all the ads recently talking about Windows' viruses. However, I don't think Apple is dumb even to purposely put that on there. That would be too obvious.
I don't quite understand how the virus got there though. Apple doesn't really explain that. I mean, it seems it would take quite a bit of work to get something like that into new iPods. Maybe a rogue employee put it there as a joke? - Quix, on 10/12/2007, -17/+44"Mod me down all you want, but after this, I will never buy an Apple product. Period."
Well, that's very dramatic of you skyshock21, but I get the feeling from your comments that you weren't exactly a big Apple customer (or potential Apple customer) to begin with. - virtualball, on 10/12/2007, -4/+29Seriously, they screwed up but still blame it on MS? Whats up with that?
*Puts on hershey-kiss tin foil hat* - mikaelc, on 10/12/2007, -0/+24http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IPod:
"With the advent of the Windows-compatible iPod, the iPod's default file system was switched from HFS Plus to FAT32, although they could be reformatted to either filesystem (excluding the iPod shuffle which is strictly FAT32)." - omnivector, on 10/12/2007, -13/+38@skyshock21
Wow. EVERY single post I've seen you make (and i even checked your comment history) is retarded, and flat out in flamitory. you are hereby ignored - kab3wm, on 10/12/2007, -4/+28Are you retarded??? The story is from Apple's own website. I'm sure Apple just made up the story for fun..
- seanmac, on 10/12/2007, -3/+26Yeah they really seem to be referencing their recent Mac vs PC ads with that line, turning their mistake into a little free negative advertising.
- msgyrd, on 10/12/2007, -12/+31"Agreed. If OSX had the deployment numbers of Windows, it would have just as many viruses."
I'm tired of hearing this FUD also. No it wouldn't. Not to say the OSX is rock solid, it certainly has exploits available, but OSX ships with zero ports open, and anything that requires "virus level" access to the system requires you to type in your password for it to run.
Also consider that most malware for OSX are proof of concepts. No viruses or worms have ever propogated in the wild. The only OSX security threat I've seen still required duping the user into executing it and giving it permission. I would think that the bragging rights of releasing a successful OSX virus/worm that didn't require user interaction would be keeping OSX a prime target of virus writers, regardless of how many systems they could potentially infect. - RadiantBeing, on 10/12/2007, -1/+19I remember seeing a story about this in the queue ten days ago. I believe it was first brought up in a thread at hardforum.com. I'm delighted to see this isn't Microsoft-funded anti-Apple propaganda, as was suggested by some conspiracy theorists.
http://digg.com/apple/Apple_s_New_iPods_May_Contain_the_W32_RJump_worm
http://www.hardforum.com/showthread.php?t=1106802 - jonbruc, on 10/12/2007, -4/+21I'm disappointed that Apple takes a cheap shot at PCs that are infected by their products. That's a little slimy.
- virtualball, on 10/12/2007, -6/+21Hehe, taking down the competition one iPod at a time :)
- bonesaw, on 10/12/2007, -2/+16There were only a few reported...but that doesn't mean more weren't out there. If nobody brought this up, there would probably be more incidents.... I say get it out in the open instead of being apathetic....
- redhatcat, on 10/12/2007, -8/+21@geminitojanus
"In other words, this isn't Apple's fault"
They are still responsible for quality control on their products. It is their fault.
"there's absolutely no way they could have known it was there"
Checking drive contents of these devices is possible on Mac OS X, Windows, GNU/Linux, and BSD. Checking every 25th one would have worked well and been financially feasible. By the way, this iPod uses a hard drive not a flash chip or chips.
@Zippo
"And besides, if you're running Windows without an anti-virus program, you're a moron."
True, but you should be able to trust a product like this.
"At least Apple came out and sincerely apologized about it."
For once, unlike with all those Macbook issues. - bonesaw, on 10/12/2007, -7/+20and at least one of those directly from Mac...next they'll be boasting about how many Windows viruses Mac Engineers create and deploy a year
- upquark, on 10/12/2007, -0/+12If this said "Small number of Zune players ship with virus" it would have been the number 1 dugg story today.
- mateo60, on 10/12/2007, -6/+18He does make a good point about the fact that iPods come with the HFS filesystem format and if you plug them into a PC it reformats them to FAT32.
So how does that work? How do pcs get a virus from a filesystem that they can't read? - wild, on 10/12/2007, -12/+24"Agreed. If OSX had the deployment numbers of Windows, it would have just as many viruses."
You know my fault with that logic? There are so many Windows fanboys out there that live to hate Apple, someone would have taken it upon themselves by now to bring them down. Not to mention the infamy that would be atttached to the first major Mac virus.
Either that or every time a hacker sits down long enough to learn the system, they switch. - maledin, on 10/12/2007, -2/+13Are you kidding? Do you think that they intetionally put the virus on the iPod?
Windows users probably account for 50 %+ of iPod owners, so that would be removing half of the iPod's market. Why in the world would they intentionally do this? - Mcaruso, on 10/12/2007, -4/+14Yes, because flawed Apple software will surely drive the masses to use more Apple software.
- geminitojanus, on 10/12/2007, -10/+20"However, I don't think Apple is dumb even to purposely put that on there. That would be too obvious."
More likely, the Flash chip they use in their devices contained the virus, installed by some malicious assembly line worker at the company. Why do I think this? Because Apple's not the only company to be affected; McD's flash-based music players were loaded with viruses as well.
In other words, this isn't Apple's fault, and there's absolutely no way they could have known it was there (as the chips should have shipped blank, per manufacturer's specs). They've started wiping the devices before they ship them (as apparent in this page they've posted, if it isn't a hoax) to keep this from happening in the future. - SnowBladerX, on 10/12/2007, -3/+12Same thing happened to Creative a while back, http://news.com.com/Virus-infected+Creative+Zen+MP3+players+found/2100-7349_3-5845499.html
- Eschel, on 10/12/2007, -1/+10What I'm wondering is HOW did they put a virus onto them in the first place?
- mv10, on 10/12/2007, -3/+12I was one of the 1% that bought an iPod from them and did get this virus. Farking Bastards. Its easy to remove
- stevekeller, on 10/12/2007, -4/+12than explain to me why apple feels it is important enough to post on THEIR own web page?
opps, meamog and kab3vm beat me to it... - anymir, on 10/12/2007, -9/+17@shuffle: They have doors that kick now? I gotta get one of those.
- Avalontor, on 10/12/2007, -0/+8@i64x
I believe he was talking about the McDonalds MP3 player giveaway in Japan with virus included and not the food that you eat there. - magus_melchior, on 10/12/2007, -1/+7@mateo60
*headscratch* You know, if it's like a lot of other mass-production facilities, the iPod factory probably has a tech that randomly tests them for PC connectivity. Suppose his machine had a virus when he was testing some...? - totorototoro, on 10/12/2007, -1/+8Really stupid PR move by Apple. Just take full responsibilty, and save the Windows bashing for the commercials.
- i64X, on 10/12/2007, -6/+12Difference is this -
You buy an iPod expecting it to play music and work. Apple screwed up and there's a virus on it.
You eat at McDonalds knowing that the food that you're eating is terrible for your health. YOU screwed up by not being able to control what your fat ass eats. - REBELinBLUE, on 10/12/2007, -1/+5Yes, and everyone kicked up a huge stink about it.....
- grablife, on 10/12/2007, -0/+5Congressman Mark Foley issued this statement upon hearing of Apples statement:
“As you might imagine, I am upset at the teenage pages for not being more hardy against such innocent advances, and even more upset with myself for believing Senator Ted Stevens when he assured me that he had deleted the series of tubes.” - ElGuano, on 10/12/2007, -0/+5Read the above comments - all ipods since they've started shipping for Windows have been formatted to FAT32 from the factory.
- smhill, on 10/12/2007, -2/+7It is a virus specific to mass storage devices. When the iPods are built at some point in the process the hard drives are imaged from a source. At some time that image got infected and replicated.
Or it is also possible that at the end of the process, all of the iPods are connected to a machine(s) to be checked. If one of those machines got infected, it would pass it on to connected iPods.
Sloppy IT and/or management in the facility. The source machine that handed out the virus should have at the very least been running current virus software, at best should be isolated so it couldn't get infected in the first place. Someone should have got fired over that.
True, bottom line, Apple's manufacturer (and by extension Apple) ***** up. But it is pretty easy to understand their frustration at security sieve that is Windows. My work box once got a virus via an AIM client. My definitions were two days out of date. Pain in the ass. It is a time suck and expense to remain vigilant and a real time suck and expense if you are not vigilant. It just shouldn't be that way. Hopefully Vista will pan out. - Bitgod, on 10/12/2007, -2/+7And you can imagine every windows user with an ipod now thinks the reason their system is being slow or acting weird is because of the "ipod virus". They already think every time they're having an issue, it's a virus.
- grablife, on 10/12/2007, -4/+9Last weekend, some friends and I broke into a house with a cheap lock and stole a plasma TV. After we were arrested, we issued this statement:
"As you might imagine, we are upset at the homeowner for not being more hardy against such breakins, and even more upset with ourselves for not getting away with it." - Teridon, on 10/12/2007, -0/+5I agree -- that would be much more interesting to me.
@smeager
Sorry, but the default filesystem for iPods has been FAT32 for years now. They made the switch soon after releasing iTunes for Windows, IIRC.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IPod#File_storage - grumpyrain, on 10/12/2007, -0/+4Malware will exist for whatever OS has critical mass. To blame a competitor for being susceptable is just crazy.
For a start
"Upon execution, it creates a copy of itself into the windows system directory:
* %Windir%RAVMON.EXE"
which works providing you are logged in as an administrator. If you are a limited useryou do not have write permissions to %WINDIR.
"Adds the following values to the registry to auto start itself when Windows starts.
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINESoftwareMicrosoftWindowsCurrentVersionRun
"RavAV" = "%Windir%RAVMON.EXE"
"
Again, writing to HKLM isn't something a limited user has security to do!
Apple has a real problem with securing their production line. This is not the first piece of software apple released without official endorsement (introduced after the official signoff). Imagine the headlines if Zune came with some Mac malware and then blamed Apple.
Give me a break. - ElGuano, on 10/12/2007, -0/+4A valid argument, but not really one that should be made on a page describing how your own product is a vector and may be responsible for putting your users at risk. Apple should save such jibes for technical discussions and marketing.
- greekgoat91, on 10/12/2007, -3/+7This is gonna get worse, look at how bad they made iTunes 7 for Windows compared to the OS X version. I'm gonna get out of Apple's hold before it gets out of hand. The Zune looks like a good player.
- odiHnaD, on 10/12/2007, -1/+5From the ground up? last time I checked OSX ran on top of Unix...
- inactive, on 10/12/2007, -7/+11Let's see the same outrage that you all gave McDonalds.
SAME ***** THING - Zippo, on 10/12/2007, -13/+17Not really an issue, though. When I first bought my iPod, I had to format the drive, therefore destroying any bad files that might of been on it. And besides, if you're running Windows without an anti-virus program, you're a moron.
***** happens. At least Apple came out and sincerely apologized about it. - rodtrent, on 10/12/2007, -0/+4hehe...Apple blames Microsoft for their own reluctance to update their AV signatures. Sounds like a bunch of end-users I know.
- MrSpontaneous, on 10/12/2007, -7/+11Amen to that. Given the wording, etc, it makes it seem as if its a plot by Steve to try and seize more market share.
*puts on tin foil hat* - Solarux, on 10/12/2007, -8/+11@msgyrd
So what you are telling me is that all virus and malicious intent can be avoided with low level changes requiring an administrative password? hahaha That level of protection is a minimal that equates to nothing more than an inconvenience. Your example is irrelevant.
Got another news flash for ya...most malicious intent is not initiated through open ports.
Sorry kiddo, but there is truth in numbers. The current foundation of the Windows platform is an older and more widely used OS. When a cracker is writing code, his thoughts aren't "I'll hack a Mac and teach those zealots"....it's more along the lines of "how can I most efficiently achieve my wanted end result building upon current knowledge." However there are a small few out there and that is why there are a couple of exploits available for the Mac that you mentioned.
Let me know how your dream ends. -
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