Where's your class? Your integrity?

Heard about the portable video and music device that came preinstalled with a virus?

Instead of focusing on how and why it was even included in the first place, the company that published a series of video ads, including this one, actual try to divert the blame on the Windows platform!

It's not a matter of which platform that the virus originated. The fact that it's found on the portable player means that there's an issue with how the quality checks, specifically the content check was done. This also indicates that through the manufacturing cycle, the base device from which the image was duplicated to the other devices in the manufacturing run, was connected to a PC that most probably did not have , and i quote their press release, "up to date anti-virus software which is included with most Windows computers".

The press release also show a lack of awareness of how malware works. Focusing on the filename, instead of the actual malware info, might confuse the owners of both the media player and the antivirus program of the same filename!

Is it now open season for Zune to come up with their own ad to highlight this incident, as a direct response to the video ad?

Taking this into perspective, McDonald's in Japan encountered a similar incident just a few days earlier as well.

Indeed, they published a press release (via Babelfish or Google Translate), apologized for it, and did not insinuate that Windows was the cause of their issue.

Furthermore, they provided a very specific fix to their issue, compared to a general set of linkages to trial and/or free versions of anti-virus scanners.

Steve, if you need someone to advise on how to improve your quality checks, feel free to contact me 8).

As i was writing this post, i found that Ed Bott did a similar post as well.

Update (10/17) : Randy did a similar post too on Eset's Threat blog. It's almost 100% exactly the same as my post here, which shouldn't surprise those that know both of us as we have the same experience in managing the same scanning system.

Another Update (10/19) : Add a little clarification on the second paragraph. I did not mean that the company published the ad as a response to this incident. I meant that the conpany had previously published the ad as part of their campaign. It's common knowledge that these ads were published and promoted a long while ago. I do appreciate the comments. Thanks!

Yet Another Update (10/19) : Sunbelt, and many other AV vendors, on the Ravmone.exe trojan.

Technorati tags: antivirus, macdonald's, media devices