A SECURITY COMPANY has warned that a pirated version of Apple's iWork 09 software is shipping with a trojan which could take control of the machine.

While many Apple users think they are safe because there have been very few ways of distributing viruses to minority machines, Intego thinks that the malware writers might have hit on a good plan with what they have called OSX.Trojan.iServices.A.

By sticking their Trojans into hot software, it can be guaranteed to find an Apple in the sea of PCs and there is a good chance that the owner knows another Apple user as they tend to hang out in 'smugs' [are you sure that is the collective noun for Apple users? ed]

The Trojan appears as a start-up item as a part of iWorkServices. It has read-write-execute permissions for root control of the computer, Intego said. The malware connects to a remote server over the Internet and allows more stuff to be loaded into the Mac.

More than 20,000 cheapskates have downloaded the virus from several pirate sites rather than getting a kosher free 30-day demo from Apple or stumping up £69 for a full version.

The only sure way for a Mac User to deal with the Trojan so far is to format the hard drive and re-install OSX.

What is amusing is that the Apple press is insisting that it is not 'a virus' because Macs don't get them. Trojans are not the same thing as they cannot spread from one machine to another without help from a stupid user. Also they are denying that it will give anyone control of the machine, when the security advisory says otherwise.

GOOGLE IS MAKING a sneaky move in getting more pennies in its pot by quietly reducing the amount of users who can set up a free Google Apps account.

This reduction has gone from 200 to 100 and now to a low 50 users who are allowed to open an account when their business signs up for the 'free' Google Apps service.

Not surprisingly the majority of the 1 million business who make use of Google Apps opt for the free version, which is why Google has decided to reduce the amount of associated accounts forcing companies to pay $50 per user after just 50 users have signed up.

Google Apps gives access to online applications such as gmail, Google Docs and Google Calender – these applications are ever growing in popularity as around 3,000 new businesses sign up on a daily basis.

The service first launched back in August 2006 when it was touted as "a service available at no cost to organisations of all shapes and sizes" – they may need to change this to, "If you’ve got more than 50 employees... pay up".

By Emma Hughes