Apple Video iPods Shipped with Windows Virus

Apple recently discovered that a small number of the Video iPods available for purchase after September 12, 2006, left Apple's contract manufacturer carrying the Windows RavMonE.exe virus. This known virus affects only Windows computers, and up to date anti-virus software which is included with most Windows computers should detect and remove it.
Apple said: "So far we have seen less than 25 reports concerning this problem. The iPod nano, iPod shuffle and Mac OS X are not affected, and all Video iPods now shipping are virus free. As you might imagine, we are upset at Windows for not being more hardy against such viruses, and even more upset with ourselves for not catching it."

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How to remove the Windows virus
RavMonE.exe is a known Windows virus and up to date anti-virus software using the default settings should detect and remove it. If you do not have anti-virus software on your Windows computer, we recommend that you install one of the many available programs. Here are a few trial programs that can remove this Windows virus which you can download free of charge:

Microsoft Live OneCare Safety Scanner - free application;
Microsoft Live OneCare - 90 day trial version;
McAfee - 30 day trial version;
Symantec Norton Anti-Virus - 30 day trial version.

After installing an anti-virus application, you should attach your Video iPod to your Windows computer and run the anti-virus program. If your Windows system is infected with this virus, an alert will be triggered and inform you that the virus has been detected and either quarantined or removed. You should then use iTunes 7 to easily restore the software on your newly purchased Video iPod.

Because this Windows virus propagates via mass storage devices, we recommend that you scan any mass storage devices that you have recently attached to your Windows computers such as external hard drives, digital cameras with removable media, and USB flash drives.

While this Windows virus does not affect Mac OS X or the iPod itself, Mac customers can use iTunes 7 to easily restore the software on their newly purchased Video iPod to ensure that it does not carry this Windows virus. The Video iPod can then be used on a Windows computer without concern.

There are a number of different pieces of malware which use a file called RavMonE.exe," said Graham Cluley, senior technology consultant for Sophos, "so we don't know at the moment precisely which trojan horse or virus may have been shipped."

The virus in question could be part of the RJump virus family which tries to steal information and open a back door into an infected PC.

In a related incident McDonalds Japan has been forced to recall some MP3 players given away as prizes that were infected with some spyware.

About 10,000 people are thought to have been sent the MP3 players that had onboard a copy of the QQPass spyware program that logs keystrokes and sends data back to criminal hackers.