Australian grocer recalls virus-infected hard drives

Added by Erik West on July 29, 2011

ALDI, a German-based discount retailer, confirmed on Friday that it sold a small number of hard drives that were infected with a known virus that collects Widows users’ passwords.

The Australian Computer Emergency Response Team released an alert on Thursday saying that the ALDI-sold drives were infected with the “Conficker” worm – a virus that was first detected around the world in 2008.

ADLI has advised customers of the problem with the drives that sell for AU $99 and has removed the product from all of its stores. ADLI also issued a voluntary recall of products already purchased; consumers that return the hard drive will receive a full refund. The name of the affected product is Fission 4-in-1 hard drive/DVD drive/card reader combo.

While most up-to-date computers will be able to detect the virus long before it can do any damage, the Australian Computer Emergency Response Team recommended that consumers reformat the hard drive and scan it with an up-to-date virus scanner.