This story caught my eye for two reasons: 1. you don’t often hear about a malicious Mac file, and 2. it involves Space Invaders.

According to Symantec, there is a trojan file out there (referred to as an OSX.Loosemaque threat) that disguises itself as a Space Invaders-style game. The catch is that for every alien ship you kill, you also kill off a file on your hard drive. Ouch!

Then there’s this, which, quite frankly, fascinates me:

“What’s interesting is that the author of this ‘game’ flat-out says what it does on his Web site,” the post continues to reveal. “Reading through the author’s description, it seems that he has created this game/threat as some sort [of] artistic project. The aliens are your files and there are consequences for ‘killing’ them. However, if you die, the game is supposed to delete itself.

Right. This is a psychological study of sorts. You kill an alien ship and you suffer the consequences. An eye for an eye, I suppose.

Symantec is concerned that, while the author is open about the consequences, other people could modify the game with an even more malicious (and hidden) intent.

So don’t go downloading that free Space Invaders game. The consequences might be a little too much.

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