This isn’t supposed to happen in the App Store ecosystem.

Early Thursday morning, Kaspersky posted a blog entry that details a new malicious app that has made it’s way to both the Apple App Store and Google Play Store. The app’s name is Find and Call, and it’s the first time we’ve ever seen a malicious app make it into Apple’s App Store.

Once installed, the app asks you to register your phone number and email address. Find and Call will also ask if you want to “find friends in a phone book” before discretely uploading your entire contact list to a remote server. The app will continue to upload your contacts, and will SMS messages to those people that contain a link to download the app themselves. These SMS messages show up as if they were sent from your number, so the recipients are much more likely to click on the link. (via Report: Trojan Horse found in the iOS App Store | Macworld)

This is absolutely reprehensible behavior, an insult to the memory of those who have died and who have suffered.

In Michigan, the State’s Republican-controlled Senate has passed an anti-bullying law named after a gay victim.

Good thing you might think. Except it’s not.

The Republicans put in a clause, introduced in secret, which is a cop out for anyone who can provide a religious or moral reason for their action.

Apparently to not grant this get-out clause is to act, as Gary Glenn, president of the American Family Association of Michigan, puts it, as “a Trojan horse for the homosexual agenda.”

The Michigan bills are known as ‘Matt’s Safe School Law’ and are named for Matt Epling, an East Lansing gay teenager who committed suicide after being bullied.

Michigan Republicans only agreed to consider an anti-bullying measure — for one of the only three US states without them — that did not require school districts to report bullying incidents, did not include any provisions for enforcement or teacher training, and did not hold administrators accountable if they fail to act. They wanted no mention of any groups at high risk of bullying, in particular gay students.

Read more: http://www.care2.com/causes/michigan-republicans-allow-bullying-if-religiously-or-morally-motivated-video.html#ixzz1dJ6E6JNI

(via Michigan Republicans allow bullying if ‘religiously or morally motivated’ | Care2 Causes)

Whew! I downloaded the Apple update the other day. I usually check the description of the update, but this time I didn’t happen to. I’m glad I’m protected.

 

Security Update 2011-003 adds protection from Mac Defender Trojan horse, daily definition updates

Posted on May 31, 2011 5:22 pm by Dan Moren, Macworld.com

Mac Trojan horses, beware: There’s a new sheriff in town, and its name is Security Update 2011-003. Not a very catchy name, to be sure, but it gets the job done—and that job is protecting Mac users from the nefarious Mac Defender Trojan horse, as well as laying the groundwork to keep them safe from future malware as well.

Mac OS X will warn you if you inadvertently download malware such as the Mac Defender Trojan horse

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