HP sends server customers virus-infected USB keys

We've seen a couple viruses make their way into the manufacturing process and onto shipping products, and it looks like HP Australia and its enterprise customers are the latest victims. USB keys shipped with some HP Proliant servers are infected with the Fakerecy and SillyFDC viruses, and the company's issued an alert saying that any up-to-date virus scanner should be able to tackle the nasties. It's a pretty low-grade threat -- the key is only used to install floppy disk drivers and neither virus is particularly destructive, but all you server admins Down Under might want to check your rigs just to be sure.

[Via The Register]

[STIEN @ Apr 7th 2008 5:53PM]

KRIKEE!! quick, start up the Wallaby Anti-Virus software!!

[Chris M (ClaMs) @ Apr 7th 2008 6:51PM]

Your attempt at imitating a national prejudice is truly entertaining;
In the "waiting in a doctor's waiting room for hours on end" sort of entertaining.

[Tinu @ Apr 7th 2008 7:36PM]

Maybe they have an anti-virus product that they want to sell after your PC gets infected :-P.

[Tech support]
User: Me got virus.
Support: We were expecting to hear from you. What took you so long?

Hehe.

[STIEN @ Apr 8th 2008 5:21PM]

nice i like that idea. its kinda like mission impossible two. that movie was great...except for tom cruise's ridiculously gay smile...

[digitallysick @ Apr 7th 2008 5:54PM]

A usb key to install floppy drivers? Does anyone see the irony in this?

[James Ollier @ Apr 7th 2008 5:59PM]

Quick, Open Norton Utilities and start a disk defrag!!

[Kamokazi @ Apr 7th 2008 6:02PM]

Kinda what I was thinking. I build enterprise-grade servers where I work, and the only time I NEED a floppy drive is when installing hardware drivers for OTHER stuff (mostly RAID cards). If you can get USB support, why the hell would you bother with floppy?

[Kamokazi @ Apr 7th 2008 6:10PM]

This is what i get for speaking before I research:

"The HP USB Floppy Drive Key provides the functionality of two USB devices in one compact package. The device functions as both a
USB 2.0 Hi-Speed flash storage device and a USB floppy."

Still not overly useful, IMHO.

[STIEN @ Apr 8th 2008 5:25PM]

are you trying to say "LMHO" as in laughing my head off...or are saying "IMHO" as is i'm a hoe?

[Esat Dedezade @ Apr 7th 2008 6:03PM]

Some companies give you a free lanyard with your USB stick.

Others apparently give you viruses....

At least their trying to innovate.

[Christian @ Apr 7th 2008 6:18PM]

would you call that as an eSTD or iSTD? or instead of S should be called C for computer?

[phanbouy @ Apr 7th 2008 6:41PM]

^
ePhail

[paul34 @ Apr 7th 2008 6:21PM]

ಠ_ಠ

[Esat Dedezade @ Apr 7th 2008 6:26PM]

+2 creativity points to you sir! That is indeed astounding.

[Cagrino @ Apr 7th 2008 7:14PM]

For anyone else wondering, I couldn't help but look up the hex code for that masterpiece...

http://www.fileformat.info/info/unicode/char/0ca0/index.htm

[michas_pi @ Apr 7th 2008 8:02PM]

ಥ_ಥ...beautiful.

[phanbouy @ Apr 7th 2008 6:25PM]

im in ur thum dr1ves, infekting ur slerverz

[massive_98 @ Apr 7th 2008 7:15PM]

I don't see how any one can like HP as a company
-they charge ridiculous prices for replacement ink
-they load they're computers with bloatware. I got especially ticked off when I couldn't uninstall Vongo. They program didn't work, the website locked me out because it was only for americans. Yet somehow, HP deemed it necessary to put a program on my Canadian laptop that cannot be uninstalled.
-and this

I hear people talking about hating Sony or Microsoft. Those companies look like saints compared to HP.

Fuck you HP. I'll never buy anything with your name on it again.

[Almo @ Apr 8th 2008 3:54AM]

- Most companies charge a lot of ink. Did you not notice that when you bought the printer? Did you not notice that printers are quite cheap? That's because they make their profits from the ink mostly. It's a business model being used for years.

- ALL manufacturers add bloat-ware to OEM computers, Sony in fact wanted to charge you $50 just to uninstall them for you! ALL software is removable, including Vongo. Here's how:

[Click on Start, Run and type MSCONFIG. Go to the Startup tab and look for isuspm and uncheck it. Click Apply and then OK and restart your PC. When your computer restarts you will get a message that says "System is running using Selective Startup." Just check " Don't show this message or launch the system configuration utility when Windows Starts" and click OK.

This should effectively stop your PC from trying to run or reinstall Vongo.

Once this is done you should also look for the Vongo folder under C:\Program Files and delete it.]

Granted, I agree with you, this shouldn't be the case but it is an OEM. If you really dont like it, buy your own insanely-overpriced copy of Windows.

- 'This', is an issue that can happen anywhere anytime, it's happened on Audio CDs, some gadget toys and EVEN iPods were shipped with viruses. It happens, you cant be too careful but ultimately mistakes and mishaps happen. The point is the company is aware of it, warning others and taking responsibility instead of denying or saying it's not their fault like that digital photo viewer trojan at first.

Anyway, yes it's a negative impact but not something that warrants your hatred as you need to see the positive aspects as well, HP produce some of the best hardware in my opinion and love them for it.. All corporate companies have flaws and are hated for them endlessly, whether Sony, HP, Dell(!), Apple, Microsoft, doesnt matter, there's no perfect winner. Take it easy & calm down! :)

[Russell @ Apr 7th 2008 8:08PM]

Wow, that is really pretty bad, considering as an IT guy, I would be setting up a brand new server on a firewalled off section of network and discover that I needed a floppy to update the firmware on some scsi disks or something, and then grab their key to install said driver.

Except I would not expect to need AV software installed at this point and would likely not have done so.

Generally we get the systems drivers all installed and up to date and software patched, THEN move the system to the production network and push the AV software to it.

[Frank Daley @ Apr 7th 2008 8:29PM]

Do people still run Windows on servers?

[farker @ Apr 8th 2008 12:26AM]

Why do I feel like it would have been better to get shot up with meth. then deal with this in a professional situation. Really it does not matter if it happened in AUS.. it happened and that matters. The whole windows/PC based server thing is out of control and no one seems to care.

[Nelson @ Apr 8th 2008 12:57AM]

Now thats the way to attract more customers, way to go HP! *high five*

[Wwhat @ Apr 8th 2008 3:08AM]

"any up-to-date virus scanner should be able to tackle the nasties"
So I guess they use norton 1998 at HP's factories where they installed that stuff on the flashkey then eh.

[Janet L. @ Apr 8th 2008 1:58PM]

That's why this is best usb drive you can get.

http://olinari.com