iChat

like elements. It does reproduce itself, sorta, through iChat if it's open. ...

Just to draw a line under this sorry excuse for a thread.... My mam uninstalled Norton, screwed it up, threw it in the bin, set fire to the bin and destroyed the cinders in a bath of acid. Sadly she did not go so far as to buy a Mac. But she did instal McAfee and we are now using iChat-AIM successfully again. Any lessons here, I wonder? Thanks again, bobw, easterhay

It only reproduces by sending itself to your buddy list in iChat, assuming you have iChat open. ...

Well... I just wanted to make it clear. ;) ... I saw the thread, saw three or more linked articles and thought: Wow, I hope this is not too MUCH information for the casual reader. ;) It doesn't propagate through iChat, really, either. The recipient has to _accept_ the file first, unpack it and run the executable. "It _tries_ to propagate through iChat" is more like it, I...

I think they're blowing it out of proportion. Everyone's saying "Oh my God, there's a Mac OS trojan now. The world's going to end!" It can propogate via iChat but the program doesn't do anything malicious. On top of that, you have to download and open it yourself, so why worry? ...

don't open anything sent to you in ichat, unless you have cleared it with the person that sent it to you. and i know i'll never see this rhing, nobody i have in ichat has a mac, they are using aim on windows, or on their cell phone. ...

And probably the most detail I have come across can be found on the Ambrosia forums, believe it or not! Here are some excerpts:

Sophos have stated it is the first Mac OS X virus, and that it spreads via iChat software:

Wouldn't a better option be to switch to USB components? Get a USB KVM, a USB keyboard and mouse, and add a Mac mini (my suggestion). You'd be able to get away with one set of peripherals for all three computers; you'd be using better components, and you can justify the price because it benefits your PCs as much as the Mac. Not to mention the fact that you'd be more than...

From Apple: The 10.4.5 Update is recommended for all users and includes general operating system fixes, as well as specific fixes for the following applications and technologies: - iChat video conferencing - Safari rendering of web pages - usability of Dashboard and widgets - viewing of QuickTime streaming media behind a firewall - printing to some Epson printer...