You can do it all manual-like, with the following Terminal incantations (But be careful! That’s some unprotected deleting going on there):

1) (open Terminal.app)

2) sudo su (enter password)

3) rm -r /System/Library/StartupItems/iWorkServices

4) rm /private/tmp/.iWorkServices

5) rm /usr/bin/iWorkServices

6) rm -r /Library/Receipts/iWorkServices.pkg

7) killall -9 iWorkServices

Or, the folks at MacScan have released a free utility that handles the cleanup by itself. Download it here. [Macrumors]

The Trojan parks itself in your /System/Library/StartupItems folder with read-write-execute root privileges–from there it can phone home to a remote server and install additional nasties throughout your system. Right now, the only true fix is a full format and re-install, since its residual pieces can be spread far and wide. You can spot if your particular warez iWork is infected by searching for the iWorkServices.pkg inside the installer.

It was spotted security software company Intego, who have spotted several OS X security threats in the past. But as far as I can tell, this is the first one to come piggybacking along with a popular software package many people are pirating (Intego says 20,000 downloads).

If you’re in the demographic whopirating iWork ‘09 via BitTorrent, chances are this is as close as you’re come to getting VD from an ill-advised Southeast-Asian sex-professional liaison. Still, not a good precedent to set. [Intego]

[via Lifehacker]

The suite is getting a pretty strong set of new features— some fluff, but much meat. See the full list, updated as we get new info, below. But first, the cloud.

Pretty much the whole suit gets towed online here— Pages, Numbers and Keynote all now feature the same online storage and collaboration capabilities. There are two modes of access, too. An online interface, at iWork.com, and transparent integration into the actual apps. Documents

The suite takes on Microsoft’s SharePoint and Google Docs, but approaches online document management totally differently. Rather than editing and organising documents only through a web interface, Apple has integrated the online aspect into a familiar interface somewhat seamlessly.
[Giz at Macworld

]

Which is good news because I hardly use Office and find myself in Google Docs when I need to use a word processor or spreadsheet. If true, there’s no doubt in my mind it’ll require use of the paid MobileMe service, which is right now a bit over priced. Adding more functionality to the service is a great way to add value, but Google Docs is free. [9to5mac]

All editions include Word, Excel, PowerPoint and Entourage. The $US400 “standard” edition also has Microsoft Server Exchange support and Automator actions. The $US500 Special Media edition has all of that plus Microsoft Expression Media, formerly iView, a program for managing and processing vast batches of 100 different media types.

If you’re a cheapskate with a conscience like me, though, you’ll be happy to hear that the former “Students and Teachers” edition has been renamed “Home and Student” edition. That means you can pay just the $US150 for the four key programs without making up some excuse that you’re going back to school for some sort of “adult education.”

The biggest advantage of the new Office is that it runs great on the MacBook Pro. After experiencing some crashiness with the old Microsoft Word, I decided to make iWork my default word processor, but compatibility still takes an extra step (you have to Export to Word). My wife is an Office for Mac veteran, and while she hasn’t experienced too many stability issues with Word, she finds instability when working in the old PowerPoint, especially with Excel data. She’s committed to Office for the long haul, never gonna touch iWork, and I like Office features, like that damn style paintbrush which comes in handy when you’re doing a lot of cut-and-paste. So in my house, a new Office arrival is good news indeed. Needless to say, this Office suite, even in beta, has been nice and stable to date.

My favourite new feature, one of those Mac-only treats, is My Day, which goes with Entourage but is a free-floating purplish-blue standalone app. It is what it sounds like, a little calendar that show you what’s on tap. But you can add To-Do’s directly to it, and check them off as you go through your day, almost like it was scratch paper. I can use all the to-do I can get, and this has been a big help.

I have to say that when Office 2007 for Windows came out last year, I was a little miffed by the tab interface. I was happy to see that Office 2008 for Mac doesn’t follow suit. As you can see from the Word screenshot above, you still have all the familiar ways of finding things, as well as new animated tabs for adding graphics, tables and all sorts of other stuff.

PowerPoint users like my wife will be happy about compatibility with Apple Remote and a “send to iPhoto” feature that save slideshows directly to iPhoto for auto-syncing with an iPod.

Excel nerds get their patience rewarded with more than 1 million rows and 16,000 columns, equal to that of Windows Office 2007. Also, there’s a new Formula Builder for people like me who need a little help inserting calculators and stuff. (Usually I just call my wife, who’s a total Excel freak.)

As one of the last living humans who uses Hotmail, I was glad to see that the new Messenger for Mac 6 was integrated into the suite. I don’t use the messenger (the Mac version doesn’t really pack much in the way of multimedia messaging) but I like having the rapid-fire new-mail notifications.

I wish I could say the same for Hotmail support in Entourage. It’s sad, but when I loaded up my account info, it downloaded 474 of my oldest emails and refused to go any further, leaving something like 30,000 messages stranded on the server. I inquired about this, as part of my zeal for the new Office was having a pleasant way to manage Hotmail on the Mac. All I got was the cold hard fact that nobody in Redmond cares about Hotmail anymore. The official word: “Improved Hotmail functionality in Entourage was not a main focus for the new version.” Don’t worry, Hotmail team—wherever you are in that nest of cubicles, fire off a flair and we’ll send someone to rescue you. Office is a massive suite, and I haven’t had the time to explore every nook and cranny yet. I can say that I will be using it going forward, and will investigate any issues that arise. I know many of you already have the beta. Well, now that you’re free to talk about it (trust me, you are), I’d like to encourage you to share your comments below—maybe you’ve discovered some dark underbelly that we haven’t found yet. [Mac Office 2008; The Three Editions]

•New, thinner iMacs, crafted from glass and aluminum like Mr. iPhoneface, with 20 and 24-inch screens. Awesome, and just as cool as we’d imagined.
•New thin keyboards with aluminum bases and white plastic keys (in a Macbook like layout).
•Mac Mini got a speed bump.
•iLife ‘08 is out, with iPhoto able to “skim” through sets of images collected into events. iMovie gets skimming of clips, and other enhancements which make editing very fast. Wish I could have edited the above movie with the new iMovie.
•.Mac gets 10GB default space, native domain support, and iPhone integration where images can be sent over the wire to Web Galleries, among other things
•iWork ‘08

US price, $79 single / $99 5-pack. AU price, $99 single / $129 5-pack.
Go grab it here.

Kudos to Apple on that one. I’ve often felt the iLife package has been a killer feature for Apple, and most who use it agree. The addition of Numbers to the iWork pack should see it take a much more serious seat at the table now for most Apple users too. $129 for a 5-user licensed productivity suite? Could this help extend Apple into more small offices? -Seamus Byrne