Worms Found in HP USB Key

HP Australia has warned that USB keys sent with some of its HP Proliant network servers are infected with a virus, getting attention to the growing use of USB drives as a means to distribute viral infections.

The low risk worms, Fakerecy and SillyFDC, were detected in a batch of 256MB and 1GB USB keys that shipped with the Hewlett Packard servers. It is undetermined how many infected keys, used for installing optional floppy-disc drives to networked servers, were spread. An infected system in the manufacturing plant is the likely cause of the incident.

The trojan spread is not interpreted as an great threat, due in part to the low amount of estimated users still utilizing floppy disk drives for data storage and that most hackers don't find the virus worthwhile.

This is not the first incident of infection to come out of the factory; others have involved digital photo frames and similar products. AntiVirus computer software, if up to date, should find both of the computer viruses involved in the HP Proliant USB attack as long the Anti-Virus software was installed after the floppy disk was added to the computer. Disabling autorun thwarts both Fakerecy and SillyFDC and may be the best choice.

Hewlett Packard's notice, via local security clearing house AUSCert, can be found here: http://www.auscert.org.au/render.html?it=9077. The SANS Institutes's Internet Storm Centre delivers advice on averting USB malware-related hazard here: http://isc.sans.org/diary.html?storyid=4247.

Computer hardware departing the factory with computer viruses is growing more common these days, increasing the motivation for robust AntiVirus protection. For a limited time, you can obtain free anti virus protection.

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Christopher is a security consultant for Lexan Systems L.L.C and founder of MX Police. For a limited time you can obtain free anti virus protection. You are welcome to reproduce this article on Computer Security related web site, as long as you reproduce the article in full, including this resource box and links to our websites.

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