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roger_grimes
Columnist

Malware living in commercial products

Analysis
Jun 12, 20061 min
Data and Information SecuritySecurity

HP and Circuit City spreading malware. I read these two malware notices from SANS http://www.sans.org June 6th NewsBites newsletter: One of HP's printer drivers was infected with the Funlove virus. According to Stephen Northcutt, this is the third time HP has released a printer driver with the FunLove virus embedded. City City's web site contained malware that could have infected unpatched IE users for over a mo

HP and Circuit City spreading malware.

I read these two malware notices from SANS https://www.sans.org June 6th NewsBites newsletter:

One of HP’s printer drivers was infected with the Funlove virus. According to Stephen Northcutt, this is the third time HP has released a printer driver with the FunLove virus embedded.

City City’s web site contained malware that could have infected unpatched IE users for over a month.

While commercial companies accidentally releasing malware to legitimate customers is nothing new, it isn’t that common these days. Over a decade ago, it was. Many vendors, including Microsoft, accidentally released viruses with legitimate content and software.

What is so surprising to me is how badly HP and Circuit City’s computer security division/outsource team must be to not have noticed the injected malware. Is there no authentication going on? Is there no change control?

When you see symptoms like this, the problems are deep and systematic.

Particularly in HP’s case, if this is indeed the third time, will someone be held responsible and fired? First time is a learning experience, second time is no fun. Third time is embarassing.

roger_grimes
Columnist

Roger A. Grimes is a contributing editor. Roger holds more than 40 computer certifications and has authored ten books on computer security. He has been fighting malware and malicious hackers since 1987, beginning with disassembling early DOS viruses. He specializes in protecting host computers from hackers and malware, and consults to companies from the Fortune 100 to small businesses. A frequent industry speaker and educator, Roger currently works for KnowBe4 as the Data-Driven Defense Evangelist and is the author of Cryptography Apocalypse.

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