Comments on: Lose/Lose Indie Game Declared A Trojan

By: mund

mund — Mon, 09 Nov 2009 02:42:18 +0000

And… what do any of your examples have to do with it being defined a trojan? Or even why only the Mac version is a trojan. The first one is the only bit slightly credible, but I’m pretty sure Symantec’s AV is more than primarliy an English application.

By: Simon Carless

Simon Carless — Fri, 06 Nov 2009 04:25:57 +0000

Hey John/RPS-ers, saying it’s been ‘nominated for IGF’ is causing commenters to shout at the IGF, which is wholly unfair. It’s been _entered_ in the IGF, which is quite different, of course – anyone can enter their own game. Please correct article? Ta!

Simon@IGF.

By: unique_identifier

unique_identifier — Fri, 06 Nov 2009 02:09:07 +0000

i reckon ‘trojan’ fits better than ‘game’ for this lump of software

By: Dominic White

Dominic White — Thu, 05 Nov 2009 18:59:58 +0000

So, are you ever *not* furious about something? Also, the question would be who nominated it. Just being nominated means approximately nothing.

By: undead dolphin hacker

undead dolphin hacker — Thu, 05 Nov 2009 18:45:22 +0000

This piece of navelgazing trash was nominated for IGF?

More bloody proof that IGF is a total pile.

By: Nerd Rage

Nerd Rage — Thu, 05 Nov 2009 17:07:00 +0000

Clever though it may be as an artistic expression, which I admit I apparently don’t understand how that is artistic, the fact remain that it’s an interactive virus.

By: Mark

Mark — Thu, 05 Nov 2009 16:54:35 +0000

*gets a flathead screwdriver to start prying dangerous Delete keys out of keyboards.

By: Ghlitch

Ghlitch — Thu, 05 Nov 2009 14:54:34 +0000

OSX.DeleteKey
Risk Level 5: Oh Noes!

Discovered: November 5, 2009
Updated: November 5, 2009 10:58:12 AM
Also Known As: OSX_DEL
Type: Trojan

OSX.DeleteKey is a Trojan that appears to be a valid keyboard button, but deletes files from the home folder when a user presses it.

Threat Assessment
Wild

* Wild Level: High
* Number of Infections: Near Universal
* Number of Sites: Pretty much everyone
* Geographical Distribution: Ubiquitous
* Threat Containment: Impossible
* Removal: Easy

Damage

* Damage Level: High
* Payload: Deletes files from the home folder.
* Modifies Files: Deletes files from the home folder.

By: josh g.

josh g. — Thu, 05 Nov 2009 14:50:00 +0000

Who didn’t see this coming from the start. Honestly, the “clever” gimmick of trashing your files as you play always seemed pretty lame from a game-design-as-art standpoint anyway so I have no sympathy.

Even if the author made it stupidly obvious that this is a dangerous thing to run, why should Symantec make an exception? Their product is meant to protect your PC / Mac from dangerous things, and this is a dangerous thing. Seems friggin’ obvious to put it on the do-not-allow list.

Obvious dangerous situations that you didn’t mention:
– user does not actually speak or read English
– someone runs game on other person’s computer, clicks past the warning, then calls them over to play it
– someone emails this around with a false explanation that the warning is some kind of prank and that it’s actually harmless (“p.s. try scaring your boss with this LOL!!1!!”)
– someone’s 4 year old thinks this is funny to run on mommy’s computer

By: Torgen

Torgen — Thu, 05 Nov 2009 14:32:44 +0000

But if you’re stupid enough to play this “game”, are you smart enough to know how to modify your virus scanner? Are you smart enough to *have* a virus scanner?

By: Riesenmaulhai

Riesenmaulhai — Thu, 05 Nov 2009 13:19:12 +0000

Yeah, and if you beat the game without dying, they’ll take as much money from you that you can – IN REALITY! – become one of those starving people.

By: Mal

Mal — Thu, 05 Nov 2009 12:56:46 +0000

They do the same to the entirely innocuous Blue Screen of Death screensaver so it’s not without precedent.

You can always add an exception to your virus scanner I’m sure.