After three pieces of malware, including a variant of the AutoRun worm, were found on a brand new Windows XP netbook, consumers are being warned to run security scans before connecting to the Internet.
When Kaspersky [Labs] developers installed their recently-released Security for Ultra Portables on an M&A Companion Touch netbook purchased for testing, “they thought something strange was going on,” said Roel Schouwenberg, a senior antivirus researcher with the Moscow-based firm. Schouwenberg scanned the machine — a $499 netbook designed for the school market — and found three pieces of malware.
One of them was a variant of the AutoRun worm, which according to a recent Computerworld posting, spreads via infected USB flash drives.
Primarily designed for browsing the Internet or checking e-mail, this low-cost alternative may be fertile ground for hackers and viruses.
