Austin, TX: 11:30 am, May 12, 2004 – Intego, the Macintosh security specialist, was notified by Macworld (UK) on May 10, 2004 about a Trojan horse, discovered by one of its readers who downloaded and ran an application from the Gnutella peer-to-peer network. Intego carried out tests on the information received and has identified a Trojan horse - AS.MW2004.Trojan - that affects Mac OS X. This Trojan horse, when double-clicked, permanently deletes all the files in the current user's home folder. Intego has notified Apple, Microsoft and the CERT, and has been working in close collaboration with these companies and organizations.

The AS.MW2004.Trojan is a compiled AppleScript applet, a 108 KB self-contained application, with an icon resembling an installer for Microsoft Office 2004 for Mac OS X. This AppleScript runs a Unix command that removes files, using AppleScript's ability to run such commands. The AppleScript displays no messages, dialogs or alerts. Once the user double-clicks this file, their home folder and all its contents are deleted permanently.

The Trojan horse has the following icon:

Intego advises all Macintosh users to only download and run applications from trusted sources. However Intego has updated its VirusBarrier X software to address this vulnerability. Intego VirusBarrier X eradicates this Trojan horse, using its virus definitions dated May 11, 2004, and Intego remains diligent to ensure that VirusBarrier X will also eradicate any future viruses that may try to exploit this same technique. All Intego VirusBarrier X users should make sure that their virus definitions are up to date by using the NetUpdate preference pane in the Mac OS X System Preferences.

For detailed information about the AS.MW2004.Trojan Trojan horse, including questions and answers, click here.

About Intego
Intego develops and sells desktop and server security and privacy software for Macintosh.

Intego provides the widest range of software to protect users and their Macs from the dangers of the Internet. Intego's multilingual software repeatedly receives awards from Mac magazines, and protects more than one million users in over 60 countries. Intego has headquarters in the USA, France and Japan.

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