IBM has apologised after supplying a malware-infected USB stick to delegates of this week’s IBM AusCERT security conference.
The unlovely gift was supplied to an unknown number of delegates to the Gold Coast, Queensland conference who visited IBM’s booth. Big Blue does not identify the strain of malware involved in the attack beyond saying it’s a type of virus widely detected for at least two years which takes advantage of Windows autorun to spread, as a copy of IBM’s email apology published by the Beast Or Buddha blog explains.
Problems of this type occur when any one of the PCs involved in loading content onto a USB stick is itself infected with malware. This could have happened either at IBM itself or its suppliers.
