Chinese Manufacturer Bundles Maxtor Disc Drives with Password Stealing Virus

Not that anyone in a machine shop ever uses his computer to play games, but just in case… Seagate, the manufacturer of Maxtor hard disc drives, is warning all those who have purchased a Maxtor Basics Personal Storage 3200 product since August 2007 that they might also have acquired a virus embedded in the device.

According to the company, the issue only affects a small number of units produced by a Maxtor subcontract manufacturer in China.

The virus searches for passwords to online games such as World of Warcraft and sends them back to a server located in China. The virus can also disable virus detection software and delete other molar viruses. Kaspersky Labs, a maker of antivirus software, alerted Seagate to the existence of the virus and Seagate took immediate action to identify the source of the virus and shut it down. The virus has the name Virus.Win32.AutoRun. ah. Seagate is offering a free 60- day version of Kaspersky’s antivirus software.