SecureMac bails out iWork pirates with its “iWorkServices Trojan Removal Tool”
“OK kids, Mommy’s going to bail you out THIS time, but if we ever catch you downloading pirated version of Apple software again, so help me you will have no iPhone for a MONTH! Do you hear me?
Thus are the words I assume SecureMac was thinking when it decided to release its “iWorkServices Trojan Removal Tool“, a free utility that will remove the iWorkServices Trojan virus which was spread last week via pirated copies of iWork 09 on BitTorrent sites.
It’s actually quite nice of them, and they even made a cute icon for the tool, but the part of me that pays for software (which is all of me) somehow feels anyone “clever” enough to figure out how to use a torrent site to find pirated software should be clever enough to delve into their infected package contents and pull the virus out themselves. Or clever enough to steal $79 from their parents to buy the darn thing. Didn’t anyone ever tell them not to take candy from strangers? Oh well, enough preaching. If you feel you may have been infected, you can download the tool here.
I hope they learned their lesson!
I sure hope that some one burned their fingers playing with those matches!
If people were really smart they would just download the trial copy of iWork 09 from Apple and then grab a SN.
I mean I can kind of understand why someone would steal MS office which cost like $300 or more, but when something is a fair price and you still want to steal it you are no robin hood.
So basically, SecureMac is endorsing the theft of iWork ’09… That’s cool….I guess…
Simply removing the trojan is not enough. Once activated, you have no idea what else it has downloaded and installed on your system… keystroke loggers, rootkits, etc… all which could be hidden from any removal tool.
In short, once you’re infected with malware, you can never trust what your computer is telling you. The only solution is to wipe your machine and reinstall everything from scratch.
I guess this is the beginning of a whole lot of malware for Macs… just like Windows.
I’d like to see this program cost like 5$, and then uploaded to the torrent sites with a different virus in it.
Repeat until the lesson sinks in raising the cost of the removal tool by 5$ each time.