The organisers of a competition to create the first in-the-wild virus to infect Mac OS have had to halt the competition due to legal concerns. DVForge, which builds Apple accessories, had offered a (so far unclaimed) $25,000 prize to the first person who could create such a virus.
The firm put up the cash - which would have gone to the first person to infect two G5 PowerMac computers running Mac OS X 10.3 connected to the internet without firewalls or antivirus protection - in response to a warning from Symantec that the Apple OS would come under increasing attack from viruses. Jack Campbell, chief executive at DVForge, said: "I have taken the difficult decision to cancel our contest. I have been convinced that there may be legal issues stemming from such a contest, beyond those determined by our own legal counsel prior to announcing the contest."