Pirates caught out without protection

The recent round of trojan reports indicating that pirated software on Mac is being distributed with nasty surprises has gotten me wondering. Is it virus writers taking advantage of over confidence in the Mac platform as virus free or could it be a ploy by software publishers attempting to deter people from pirating their software?

Hit the read link for more on the latest Trojan reports.

The first report came about the latest incarnation of iWork. BitTorrent distributed copies of iWork were found to contain the iServices.trojan that installed itself along with iWork ‘09 when root access was given for the iWork installation. This meant that the trojan could operate at all levels across the infected system and recruit more malicious software from the internet. This came at the same time as the revelation that Apple no longer required a serial key for installation of retail (hard) copies of iWork ‘09.

The second report just announced is that a pirate distribution of Adobe CS4 contains another variant of the same iServices.Trojan. This time the ‘Serial Cracker’ is in fact the trojan, modified to prevent the patches that remove the previously released iServices from working. Intego labels this report as ‘Serious’, however as before this virus can’t spread from one machine to another and is only picked up by installing pirated software. Adobe’s Photoshop and CS suite of applications is one of the more popular software on both Windows and Mac to pirate with relatively high price tags and a high desirability. Adobe on the windows platform has instigated a series of checks within it’s software in an attempt to thwart piracy  including making the application ‘phone home’.

Malware in pirated software is nothing new, file sharing networks are chock-a-block full of virus infected files that sting unsuspecting users. The difference here however is that this is a Mac specific targeted campaign. Most virus writers target Windows due to the considerably larger market share. This series of attacks  however might have proved that Mac pirates are a potentially more vulnerable target for malicious attack due to their over confidence in the ‘invulnerable’ OSX platform. Your average tech savvy Windows user doesn’t think twice about scaning downloaded files with a virus checker (or shouldn’t do) but on the Mac side there isn’t much need to scan many things unless you’re trying not to spread Windows viruses to other Windows users you may know. Looking at the software side I wonder whether this is in fact an attempt to stop people pirating software on behalf of Apple or Adobe? Is it a co-incidence that Apple removes its rudimentary protection from it’s iWork suite only to find that pirated copies are being made unpalatable by viral infection? It could be a decent ploy to deter the novice or less tech savvy pirates who would be scared off by the threat of a virus wreaking havoc on their system. It could be a move similar to the removal of DRM from music by the publishers of preventing restriction and making their software more attractive for purchase whilst attempting to make ‘other means’ hazardous.

Whoever is behind these Mac trojans the answer is clear: Don’t pirate software unless you want to get burned. What do you our dear readers think? Is this just another attempt at getting your banking details or is this a planned campaign with more of a motive?