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8. TomTom takes a wrong turn

Posted on 17 Jun 2008 at 10:33

Gaffe rating: 147

Back in January 2007 it was revealed that some users of the TomTom Go 910 satnav unit had got a little more than the right directions to Didcot. The newly purchased GPS devices came bundled with a handful of virus infections. Clued up and protected users revealed that when they first connected the satnav unit to their Windows PC it immediately triggered not one, but two, antivirus software alerts.

The device had arrived straight from the factory with the win32.Perlovga.A Trojan and TR/Drop.Small.qp Trojans resident within copy.exe and host.exe files. For users without up-to-date antivirus protection, this raised the possibility that as they were updating their satnav device with the latest mapping and software files, the Trojans were updating their PC with a nice bit of malware.

Worse still, TomTom only admitted it was aware that an "isolated number" of the devices "produced between September and November 2006 may be infected with a virus," after PC Pro told them the story was going to break.

There are a number of lessons to be learned on both sides here. Users should treat anything that can transfer data and plugs into your PC as potentially hostile, from USB sticks to satnav, and ensure that their security software scans it for nasties. And vendors need to understand that burying heads in sand and hoping problems will go away isn't good practice - disclosure is the only option to ensure customer security.

Next: 7. Expert, secure thy self

The 10 worst security gaffes

Author: Davey Winder