Buy an iPod, get a free virus.
cnn.com
Going forward, I'm wiping new machines and reinstalling from disk when they arrive.
Not to mention that the factory install of os X was seemingly screwed up on my MBP and missing tar and gnutar entirely.
cnn.com
Not to mention that the factory install of os X was seemingly screwed up on my MBP and missing tar and gnutar entirely.
Not to mention that the factory install of os X was seemingly screwed up on my MBP and missing tar and gnutar and I'm still not sure what else.
There is no reason to format every factory-new machine that you receive. That's just paranoia. These incidents have been relatively rare.
You're telling me that plain old tar should be missing, by default, on an OS X machine? I ended up taking tar and gnutar from a buddy's machine who did not have Xcode Tools installed. He's not a developer--he doesn't know what xcode is! He had both files from a clean install of his shiny new Leopard install disk.
It's not paranoia. You trust strangers in China? What's the downside to reinstalling? Maybe an hour? The upside is reduced risk of someone emptying out your bank account. For these factory workers, the contents of one US bank account might be 5-10 years pay. If you think this is paranoia, hope you don't manage any security functions. I think it's just being safe.
I find your claim that somehow your factory install is incomplete very unlikely. Your factory-new laptop is missing these specific files yet everything else operates normally? No.
Unlikely stuff happens, just less often. I appreciate that you were trying to be helpful and to you I'm just "random internet guy" but I'm being honest, I already fixed the problem, and it was as I am stating. Telling someone staring at a blue moon that "that's unlikely" is just going to piss them off. You've squandered the goodwill and karma your original helpful comment in the other thread merited. This conversation has nothing to do with xcode anymore, but a lot to do with tool. Can we stop the "it works on my machine" BS now and move on?
These incidents mentioned in the article have been very rare. They did a pretty good job of scaring you. When a multinational conspiracy to steal your identity does occur, you'll be covered by your bank's insurance.
I don't understand the point you're trying to make with that article. Clarkson published his account details and challenged people to exploit it. If you gave the keys to your home to a burglar, what would you expect? The article does not say he was unable to recover his funds.
There must be dozens of ways for someone to steal your financial information. If you truly want to be safe, you should start by burning your trash, always pay in cash, and never hire an accountant to do your taxes. You never know where there's a leak. It's not practical to exercise this level of caution. Just live your life. Credit cards offer 0% liability against fraud and banks have the FDIC and private insurance for these types of situations.