Hewlett-Packard Takes Shipping Malware-Infested USB Sticks Very Seriously

WHO: Hewlett-Packard
WHAT: A batch of USB keys for HP’s line of ProLiant servers have been shipped infected with the worms W32.Fakerecy and W32.SillyFDC. Both can allow attackers to take over a system.
WHERE: HP ships USB sticks with malware [CNET] (Thanks to Jimbo!)
THE QUOTE: “HP takes all quality issues very seriously. Because the keys involved are used to install optional floppy-disk drives, this only affects the USB Floppy Drive Key kit which is a very low volume option and impacts a very small percentage of our ProLiant customer base. We’ve determined root cause and are fully confident that we have resolved this event. To date, no customers have reported this issue.”

“Taking it seriously” is a phrase companies use over and over again in public statements whenever they have bad PR. Our series of posts on occurrences of the phrase is our attempt to question how seriously companies are really taking these matters if every time they trot out this phrase by rote.
(Photo: jblyberg)

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