iPod virus

An Apple contractor who supplies iPod hard drives uses a Windows machine as part of its manufacturing/testing process. That machine installed a Windows virus on a small number of iPods. The problem was caught fairly quickly.

Apple carped a little bit about being "upset at Windows for not being more hardy against such viruses". That's a fair statement, though the Microsoft apologists didn't like it very much and cried foul pretty loudly, countering that Apple was "sloppy".

Barely noticed in the din, Sophos pointed out that Apple mis-reported the virus name: according to them, it's not "ravmone.exe" at all. They explain that Ravmone.exe is simply one of the files that W32/RJump-F may copy itself to. The Sophos page that covers this shows their protection for this virus only began October 20, 2006, which means neither Apple nor their contractor would have stopped this worm with Sophos software much before then.

However, Trend Micro aparently had a crystal ball: their description explains that the worm arrives via iPods and that description is tagged with a creation date of Jun. 21, 2006! Rather prescient, considering that this affected iPods shipped after September 12, 2006.

The worm is classified as "non-destructive", though it can steal files and ip information and transmit that elsewhere, so it would seem that it could be dangerous for your credit cards and bank accounts.

Assuming you hooked that iPod up to a Windows machine, of course. Hooked up to your Mac it is impotent.

http://blogs.zdnet.com/hardware/index.php?p=120
http://www.betanews.com/article/Microsoft_AV_Head_Criticizes_Apple/1161289948
http://www.mercurynews.com/mld/mercurynews/business/technology/15790234.htm

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