Remember a few weeks ago when a few Zunes made it out the door with trojans on them, and a few months before that when devices were making it out of Apple's labs with viruses on them? Well, it's happened again, this time to TomTom, one of the most popular portable navigation companies around. The TomTom GO 910s that came with software version 6.51, manufactured from September to November of last year, have been reported to have viruses on them out of the factory, and would cause various AV scanners to go beserk when they were plugged in. The danger, they say, is minimal, given the type of infection:
The maker of the GO 910 states, "The viruses that were detected present an extremely low risk to customers' computers or the TomTom GO 910. To date, no cases of problems caused by the viruses are known."
The company is assuring everyone that it doesn't pose a danger to navigation while driving (how unlucky would that be, driving over a cliff because of a trojan), though they do suggest anyone using those units get it cleaned.
How, exactly, are these "factory" units being shipped with viruses ever? Is it standard for high-tech companies to allow a quality control machine on their network to be used for casual browsing where it can become a liability to the company?