#MICROSOFT AUTOUPDATE MAC VIRUS MAC OS#
In a report released last month, Sophos PLC, a British company that sells anti-virus software, noted that through the first six months of 2003, the most commonly reported virus that could affect Mac computers was one designed for the "classic" Mac OS - not OS X. Mac users rarely have concerned themselves with worms and viruses because very few "malware" - malicious software - programs have been written for the Mac. Nevertheless, this is not an occasion for gloating, as the attack caused widespread inconvenience - ask anyone who visited any of Maryland's Motor Vehicle Administration offices last Tuesday - and surely cost the nation's businesses millions of dollars in lost productivity. So a computer running a non-Windows operating system, such as Linux or the Mac OS, is immune.
The worm exploits a vulnerability present only in certain versions of Windows.
That's because the "Blaster" worm, also known as LovSan and MSBlast, cannot harm a Mac. As the latest Microsoft Windows infection spread across the Internet last week, knocking out thousands of PCs in homes and businesses, Macintosh users did what they usually do during a computer virus outbreak - they continued working.