Pirated iWork 09 installation may infect thieves with trojan

If you are one of the 20,000 people who have already pirated Apple’s iWork 09 at the time this article was written, technological karma may have arrived on your doorstep. It seems that a good number of the pirated iWork 09 installations have installed a nasty Trojan onto the computers of the software thieves.

Some are saying that this is a case of well deserved hardship and hassle for those who don’t pay for their software. I’m not so sure. For one thing, though it seems odd in this day and age, there are still as many people out there who just don’t understand the legalities of copyright. Sure, most know exactly what they are doing, but a large number still don’t get it, in spite of the recent years of RIAA and MPAA lawsuits and other ramifications against piraters. I hardly think that the ramifications of this virus, seen in action here, are fair repercussion for what may (and may not) have been an innocent mistake.

If you are one of the unlucky ones to have fallen prey to the Trojan being dubbed OSX.Trojan.iServices.A by Anti-Virus software company Intego, you are vulnerable to attack from remote user(s) outside of your computer. It is important to note that a Trojan, unlike a virus, can not be sent from computer to computer. You aren’t going to accidentally infect your office network or your mom’s laptop if you have this Trojan in your system. It is not something that is spread by email. Instead a Trojan requires an action on the part of the recipient, in this case installing the pirated software file.

How can you tell if your pirated installation of iWork 09 has infected you? Look into your directory: System/Library/StartUpItems. If you see a file called iWorkServices, you’ve been hit by the Trojan and you need to remove the Trojan immediately or risk having your computer under the complete control of a remote user, coming and going. This is not as simple as just deleting the file! Unfortunately, the best way to get out from under the thumb of an active Trojan that can install its own extra components is to do a full, clean reinstall of the Operating System.

This means you then have to reinstall all other programs from CDs, not from external drives, in case the Trojan hid components inside any of their files. It is a colossal pain, not to mention time consuming, to get out of a Trojan infection situation. However, it is non-negotiable to uninstall it by starting fresh, otherwise your computer and the private data on it remains at risk indefinitely. It is ok to back up your information from your external drive or off site back up once the Operating System and programs are reinstalled from their disks, however, so as long as you do regular backups you should be ok with that at least. If you don’t do regular backups, well, shame on you! Now is the time to start.

• How to remove the iWork ‘09 trojan
• How to remove OSX.Trojan.iServices.A, iServices.B
• Intego discovers iServices trojan in Photoshop serializer
• The iBot network attacks! Nothing will ever be the same…
• iWork productivity tips: How to get things done