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Malware Found On Brand-New Windows Netbook
An anonymous reader alerts us to an interesting development that Kaspersky Labs stumbled across. They purchased a new M&A Companion Touch netbook in order to test a new anti-virus product targeted at the netbook segment, and discovered three pieces of malware on the factory-sealed netbook. A little sleuthing turned up the likely infection scenario — at the factory, someone was updating Intel drivers using a USB flash drive that was infected with a variant of the AutoRun worm. "Installed along with the worm was a rootkit and a password stealer that harvests log-in credentials for online games such as World of Warcraft. ... To ensure that a new PC is malware-free, [Kaspersky] recommended that before users connect the machine to the Internet, they install security software, update it by retrieving the latest definition file on another computer, and transferring that update to the new system, then running a full antivirus scan."
Doesn't seem like an accident.
To ensure that a new PC is malware-free, [Kaspersky] recommended that before users connect the machine to the Internet, they install security software, update it by retrieving the latest definition file on another computer, and transferring that update to the new system, then running a full antivirus scan
And people say Linux is user unfriendly? I never use Windows to visit banking/credit card/money websites, and I advise all my friends to do the same.
Qxe4
But trusting another computer depends on knowing it's clean of malware. I'd think it a better bet for Kaspersky to offer bootable thumb drives with a slim OS and their software, allowing users to scan any machine with a known good device.
You know, I always thought it would be a good idea to ship PC's without the OS loaded. If the end user had to set up the OS it would force them to learn the basics...But that's why I'm an ex-tech support asshole I guess.