Category — Computer Stuff

This came across my computer screen today and I thought I’d just pass it along. Too many people think that “out of the box” computer stuff is just peachy and “clean.” Not so. As wisdom teaches: “Be nice to everyone; trust no one.” Listen to what ComputerWorld had to say today about Maxtor hard drives coming from China (see full article here).

Seagate Technology LLC has shipped Maxtor disk drives that contain Trojan horses that upload data to a pair of Chinese Web sites, the Taiwanese government’s security service warned this weekend.

They say “the drives were infected out of the box” and that “the method of attack was unusual, adding that it suspected Chinese authorities were involved.” Lovely. Another quote from the article:

The two Trojans, said the Investigation Bureau, “phone home” to a pair of Web sites hosted in Beijing and report all data recorded on the compromised drive… This is not the first time that the government of mainland China — the People’s Republic of China — has been accused of cyberspying or other computer hacks and attacks.

So, what do you do? [Read more →]