17 October 2006
You've won an MP3 player but lost your passwords and security
When you win a free product, you usually don't expect the brand new device to have any malicious software on it, but that seems to be exactly what has happened to 10000 people who have won MP3 players from McDonald's and Coca-Cola in Japan.
The players were shipped with the McDonald's logo and were preloaded with 10 songs and a bonus password stealing Trojan known as QQPass. It isn't exactly known how computers can be infected from the MP3 player but some say all that is required is to plug the thing into a computer.
How can this happen with hardware coming directly from the factory? This is the major question that should be asked. Did no one check the devices for quality before shipping? Was the Trojan in one of the songs or loaded separately? This incident leaves a lot of questions about the legality of the pre-loaded MP3s and where they were obtained as well as the level of quality assurance found at producers of MP3 players.
The players were shipped with the McDonald's logo and were preloaded with 10 songs and a bonus password stealing Trojan known as QQPass. It isn't exactly known how computers can be infected from the MP3 player but some say all that is required is to plug the thing into a computer.
How can this happen with hardware coming directly from the factory? This is the major question that should be asked. Did no one check the devices for quality before shipping? Was the Trojan in one of the songs or loaded separately? This incident leaves a lot of questions about the legality of the pre-loaded MP3s and where they were obtained as well as the level of quality assurance found at producers of MP3 players.
