Posted by Rich on 02/18/06 01:13

Security companies and computer analysts were abuzz over the virus,
which is dubbed Leap-A or Oompa Loompa and comes disguised as an image
file.

The virus is significant in that it appeared to be the first virus
capable of infecting Mac OS X, which until now had been considered
impervious to viruses.

"Some owners of Mac computers have held the belief that Mac OS X is
incapable of harboring computer viruses, but Leap-A will leave them
shell-shocked," Graham Cluley, a technology consultant for security
firm Sophos, said in a news release.

There was no immediate comment from Apple on Friday, but Sophos
described Leap-A as spreading on the iChat messaging system via files
tagged "latestpics.tgz."

Copyright 2006 by United Press International

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