This might not be of importance to many but it does pose a serious threat to us computer users all over the world. We all know of viruses and other forms of malware you get when you download programs on the internet right, well this puts a twist in the malware arena for imagine getting a new hard disk and getting it pre-loaded not with a free operating system or other useful programs like office (which was the norm a few years back to get people to buy PC’s) but with a form of Trojan that was supposedly planted to aid in industrial espionage. Yup, it has happened and the major suspect is China. China and Taiwan have long been locked in a battle for the same goals, China wants Taiwan as a state (which really was the case as it was indeed a colony of the Communist state a few years back until it declared independence). Being one of the leading semiconductor manufacturers in the world, China has never lost sight of the Island country and has had to resort to unusual tactics to get intelligence about everything Taiwanese.
The Hard disks in question were manufactured by Maxtor and eventually even Seagate has detected hard disks infected with a Trojan program that was somehow placed there during the manufacturing process. The 300Gb.Maxtor disks were sold in Taiwan for use primarily on government computers where huge databases were stored in the running of the country.
Seagate has announced the same and both incidents do have similarities in which both products had passed through the hands of Chinese sub-contractors during the manufacturing process where they have been reportedly infected with the said malware. Both manufacturers have recommended a clean sweep of new hard disks prior to installation in a computer system to assure no malware ever get’s to do what it was designed to do in the first place. They also recommend the installation of anti-virus software wherein Seagate’s hard disks come pre-bundled with a free Kaspersky Labs Antivirus software that is valid for a month or two.