Chris Brook

1998

1995/6

The mid ‘90s marked the dawn of macro viruses written into software like word processors and spreadsheet programs. WM.Concept, a 1995 virus was shipped with Microsoft Word for Mac CD ROMs. The virus was largely harmless and merely displayed a ‘1’ message box on infected PCs and Macs. Laroux, a similar virus later surfaced for Microsoft’s Excel, yet didn’t hit Macs until 1998 with the release of Excel 98. Like Concept, Laroux was nondestructive and simply appended a macro sheet called “laroux” to users’ workbooks.

1990

MDEF (also known as Garfield) and its variants emerged on the malware scene in 1990 to infect application and system files in Macintosh 128K and 512K, 512KE, Mac Plus, SE, SE/30, II, IIx, IIcx, IIci and IIfx computers. Coded by an Ithaca, N.Y. teenager and identified at nearby Cornell University, the malware didn’t cause intentional damage but could cause crashes and damage files.

1987

1982

With the recent glut of high profile Mac-based malware like MacDefender and Flashback, it’s easy to forget that Macintosh computers (and Mac malware) have been kicking around for more than thirty years – longer, even, than Windows malware. In fact, the first documented Mac virus actually predated some of the first PC viruses by a good four years.

A German court ruled earlier this week that victims of phishing scams, and not banks, are responsible for money lost in online scams.