Apple Ships iPods with Windows Virus

This week, Apple reported that a relatively small number of its iPod portable MP3 players shipped with a Windows virus. The virus--which affects the full-sized iPod with video--can infect Windows computers that the devices are connected to.

Apple, naturally, took the opportunity to partially blame the problem on Microsoft. "We are upset at Windows for not being more hardy [sic] against such viruses, and even more upset with ourselves for not catching it," Apple said in a statement (which was apparently not vetted through Microsoft Word's grammar checker) on its Web site. Apple said the virus originated on a "Windows terminal" at a factory owned by an unnamed iPod "contract manufacturer."

"The iPod nano, iPod shuffle, and Mac OS X are not affected, and all video iPods now shipping are virus free," Apple's statement reads. "This known virus affects only Windows computers."

You can use free tools from security companies such as McAfee and Symantec to eradicate the virus, called RavMonE.exe, but Apple recommends that any Windows users who recently purchased an iPod check their entire system--including any external storage devices--for the virus. According to Apple, the virus doesn't pose a direct threat to data files on an infected PC, but it does lower security settings.

Apple says less than 1 percent of the shipped iPod with video units include the virus, and it has received fewer than 25 reports concerning this problem so far. For more information and links to tools that can remove the virus, visit the Apple Web site.
http://www.apple.com/support/windowsvirus/