Intego has found that a trojan’ed version of iWork 2009 is doing its rounds on the usual Bittorrent places as Pirate software.    Link here to advisory

Installing the software installs the software in question - but also installs a Trojan horse - to quote Intego below:

“The malicious software connects to a remote server over the Internet; this means that a malicious user will be alerted that this Trojan horse is installed on different Macs, and will have the ability to connect to them and perform various actions remotely. The Trojan horse may also download additional components to an infected Mac.”

I admit it, when I wrote my “Security predictions for 2009“, I didn’t expect the 1st prediction to be potentially met by end of January…    I believe his could well become a botnet.

Trojans have been a common risk if you download pirate software for years - so anyone doing this should already be aware of the risks of doing so…. although admittedly Apple users have had it light compared to PC users, with not many being targeted at them.

Is this, as I predicted last year, the first in a wave of attacks aimed at Apple users?

In recent months, financial bloggers have really hit the press with in some cases scarily accurate predictions.

In this linked BBC News article, the BBC are reporting that Park Dae-sung has been arrested for the spread of false information by his government and may be facing 5 years in jail. This despite successfully predicting the demise of Lehman Brothers (1 week prior), and massive slides in the South Korean currency. The government are arguing that his very predictions move the market, and were affecting the money markets. Scarey in a way..

Robert Peston also moved the markets last year when he gave an exclusive “rumour” of a merger between the HBOS and Lloyds banks back last October. This was also quoted in the observer as having the possibility of being investigated by the SFO, but I can’t find any more recent updates.

The worry I have really is given the financial markets trust these bloggers so much and they have so much ability to move the markets in a positive or negative ends.    This leads to the possibility for potential insider trading to also more concerning items:

My concern is knowing the above - if a prominent bloggers account was hacked and was then used by hackers for nefarious ends. Recently several Twitter accounts have been hijacked - which shows blog/messaging services can be vulnerable.

For example imagine a hacker posting a bank was in severe financial problems on a prominent blog. At worst this could lead to a run on the bank, and thus the bank failing. At best, if its a respected blog, it’d cause a temporary blip on the world financial markets. Temporary as once the real blogger discovered the hack he’d probably remove the post..

The issue you see is RSS however - the moment the Hacker posted the message it’d blip on many peoples screens globally… and the message would be out there. After all, most people I know prefer to use a RSS reader than use the native websites nowadays. Hacking is also big business nowadays, with a lot of money being made by Russian hacking groups. These would easily have money available to “short” a stock and thus have good cause to make it want to drop like a stone.

Will we this year see the markets moved by a Hacker? I wonder….   Or have we already seen this and its just not been spotted by the FSA or US regulators (SEC)?

For those who havn’t seen them - mini Infrared controlled indoor helicopers are a complete blast…and amazing fun.    I got the linked one for a christmas present.

I’m seriously amazed, it had the whole family playing with it on Christmas day - and trying to control it.    We’d set up a take off and landing point in the living room, and everyone got involved trying to make the helicopter do what we wanted.

You see the remote control helicopers nowadays hover really well - but to make a real helicopter go forward, you angle the blades forward.   In these (simple) RC ones, you can’t do that, and instead use the rear propellor, and spins, to make the helicopter (very slowly) move to your destination.    Making it do what you want is therefore very tricky indeed - especially when small gusts of breeze from nearby air movement can catch  you off-guard and send the copter flying into a wall/furniture!

I’d say its been one of my favourite gadget presents ever - and even my 55 year old Dad enjoyed it a lot.   I sense a present for him on his birthday..

What presents did you get/love at Christmas?