Just curious. Has the software from a legitimate company ever come out of the “factory” with a virus attached to it? (By “legitimate”, I guess I mean a company that’s been around for a while and that advertises and does business beyond the confines of the back pages of some throw-away magazine.)
Sony distributed a root-kit virus on purpose with much fallout.
Not a virus, per-se but google “sony rootkit” for info on how Sony/BMG managed to install spyware on lots and lots of machines.
World of Warcraft was supposed to have a bit of code that scans the active applications running in the “background”, and report back to Blizzard if one of the more popular or well known “hacks” was being used.
Lots of crying about it on their forums a year ago. Dunno if it is still there. I don’t run porn on my PC, so I ain’t worried…
One time the authorization code floppy for some software we run at work had a worm on it when we got it. This is pretty specialized software, not widely distributed mainstream stuff, but it was definitely infected. Oops.
Leading Edge shipped a bunch of computers with virii on the hard drives. You don’t see there computers in stores much, any more. Likewise, Maxell used to sell pre-formatted 5 1/4" disks, some with the operating system on them. One batch came out with viruses on it, and they stopped selling, for some reason.
Sure. It’s probably happened often. Recently Apple shipped some iPods with a virus.. All it takes is for someone to make an unauthorized use of a distribution/duplication computer.
Thanks!
I’m sure this type of thing makes the manufacturer just a wee bit embarrassed. Just a tad.
I’m not sure it meets the OP’s definition of a legitimate company, but I have a friend who just bought some “bargain” software CDs at the dollar store. (Don’t get me started about whether that’s a smart move or not - it wasn’t my fault, nor my decision.) And when she tried to install, it came up with several viruses, according to the anti-virus program she has on the machine. (And that doesn’t even mention the browser ‘enhancement’ software it installed at the same time.)
I know of a place that, back in the DOS/Windows 3.1 days, sold a whole bunch of ruggedised laptop computers with a virus on the hard drives. They were duplicating drive images from an infected master. Oops.
They don’t sell those computers any more.
A former employer of mine shipped some virus infected upgrade disks once. This was not mass distributed software though…a custom program for one specific customer.
The Powerpuff Girls DVD had a virus.
ISTR that there was a virus on some early Mac application or system software or update. I don’t remember any details.