UW Computer Security Research and Course Blog

It turns out Macs can catch something. Apple’s most recent version of iWork, the counterpart of Microsoft Office, contains a Trojan. Well, almost.

The pirated version that you can download from places such as The Pirate Bay is the one that contains the Trojan. It includes an extra package when installing, and when the user gives the iWork installer administrator privileges, the Trojan package uses them to launch its own installer. After a successful install, the Trojan sends a message back to the mothership and awaits further orders.

(Read on …)

Now that computers have reached the mainstream, demand for online services is increasing. Recently, this has come to include access to medical records over the Internet. The existence of products such as Microsoft’s HealthVault and Google’s Google Health demonstrates the demand for this type of service. Even though such services can be used to improve the quality of health care, care must be taken to ensure they don’t create new problems.

(Read on …)