Seagate shuts the gate
The horse has bolted. Do be a dear and go out and shut the gate. You may remember that news broke earlier this week that Maxtor/Seagate drives were coming out rigged to thieve your World of Warcraft account credentials, fresh from the factory.
Seagate responded with a notice that is hard to find, unless you know exactly where to look - no mention of the debacle appears to be on their front page, news, or press-releases.
Gizmodo, however, poked them and has managed to squeeze some more information from Seagate. According to Gizmodo, Seagate discovered the problem in September, but gave no notice - and apparently took no action to recall the infected hardware until a media stink took place - one they're apparently keen not to mention on their website in any way that might alert their customers before harm is done.
I mean, how often do you check the manufacturer's specific web-page for your hard-drive before you plug it in, or when you pick up your new system? Never right? Same here.
Seagate claims that a single lot from a single contracted manufacturing facility are at fault. They also claim to have cleaned it all up, and that the infected units slipped past their virus scan (pardon, aren't these drives supposed to ship unformatted?) and that they'll be using three different virus scans.
As final measures, Seagate is restricting access to test units, and requiring employees to pass through metal detectors. Seagate are writing the infection off as an accident, rather than as a deliberate attempt by someone to grab your account password.
The infected Maxtor Basics drives shipped worldwide - they could be in your local store or system assembler - who may, themselves, not know that the units may be infected.
