Mac Attack (OSX.RSPlug.A Trojan Horse)

Well folks, it was too good to be true. One of the very first serious attacks has happened to Mac OS X (everything from 10.2 to 10.5). There is a Trojan Horse out there for the Mac OS called OSX.RSPlug.A. In reality it's not a Virus because it doesn't replicate itself and it only supposedly changes your DNS.

What does all that mean in English you ask? Well, when you connect to the internet your ISP (Internet Service Provider) has what is known as Domain Name Servers (DNS) which tell your computer where to navigate itself in the internet. Without DNS your computer wouldn't know how to get to this Blogger site.

The Trojan Horse puts in a malicious DNS setting that you cannot change. Additionally it hijacks your System Preferences and doesn't allow you to do anything. The only issue with this is that every time you do a search it takes you to a malicious search site, and or a porn site.

If you're a girl on a Mac you're probably already safe because the only way you can get this Trojan Horse is by being a dummy. Yes, a dummy. My friend who got this Trojan Horse (who will remain nameless) went to a site and wanted to see some video they had. The site asked him to install some sort of software in order to view the video. After he downloaded the software, he entered his admin password and BOOM he was infected.

I say girls are safe because you gals aren't going around looking for porn, unless you're one of the many girls that I know... but that's a totally different post altogether.

There are supposedly some ways to fix this. One is to have an anti-virus program running on your mac, or by using the Terminal Command program. In my friends case, not even Norton Antivirus for Mac helped. In the end I had to reinstall the entire operating system to get his Mac to work correctly.

You can find some articles on the Trojan Horse at MacWorld and Intego. They have the "how to remove" notes.

In the end, this is more of an annoyance than a real issue. You don't need to think twice about your Mac not being safe. Just don't download and install stuff you don't know about.