DVForge, known to Mac lovers the world ’round for such products as the SightFlex, MacMice, and the Ball, has cancelled its contest in which it offered $25,000 to the first person who wrote a virus directed at OS X, and who could incapacitate at least two PowerMacs.
Wrote DVForge CEO Jack Campbell, “The contest was only cancelled because I was convinced on Saturday morning that there was some minor risk of federal law violation in continuing. I have been stunned by Mac users writing to us who seem to prefer to live in fear and uncertainty, with their heads down, feeling ‘lucky’ for the moment, rather than to actually know the truth.”
According to DVForge, the purpose of the contest was to prove that it would be impossible for someone to attack OS X in such a fashion as to bring the system down. According to reports, DVForge had offered up two sacrificial PowerMacs, connected to the Internet and running no additional security or firewall.
Scoffing at claims that this was nothing more than a publicity stunt for DVForge, Campbell wrote “Interestingly, this was actually a serious PR risk for us. It is always safest to avoid controversy and to simply sit quietly on the sidelines and let the issues of the day drift by. The issue of the world at large constantly misstating the Mac OS X virus susceptibility was something we decided as a company to try and do something about.”
I guess now we’ll never know.
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