Malware-infected USB sticks shipped by IBM

So far, according to security expert Graham Cluley, the company has not announced how many infected USB sticks it believes it has shipped to customers. The malware is found in the tool’s directory initialisation, and when tool is launched from the USB stick to configuring the Storwize storage solution, the malware is copied to a temporary directory on the computers hard drive.

IBM recommends that the malware-infected USB sticks should either be securely destroyed, or have the offending folder wiped and a clean version of the installation tool package downloaded and installed in its place. According to IBM, up-to-date versions of the following anti-virus products have been confirmed to detect the malware: AhnLab-V3, ESET NOD-32, Kaspersky, McAfee, McAfee-GW-Edition, Microsoft, Qihoo-360, Symantec, Tencent, Trend Micro, Trend Micro Housecall, ZoneAlarm.

Still, the malware is only copied onto the computer. The initialisation process does not actually run the malicious code, and a computer can only become infected if the malicious file is executed.