In October 2006, iPod ran into a bit of a snag regarding its Windows support, considered by many in the industry to be crucial to iPod's near-complete dominance in the portable media player market. One might think that because iPods are Apple devices, they're not susceptible to the viruses that plague Microsoft's Windows operating system. Apparently, not so. If you bought an iPod video between September 12, 2006 and October 18, 2006, there is, according to Apple, a 1 percent chance it contains aworm called RavMonE.exe.
The worm is of the sort that opens a "back door" on a PC so that a remote user can start controlling the infected computer. The iPod shuffles and iPod nanos shipped after September 12 are not infected with the malware; the worm does nothing to harm the iPod device itself; and people who only connect the iPod video to a Mac running Mac OS X will never activate the worm. The malware is in the Windows-support programs that live on the iPod.
The worm jumps into action when you connect an infected iPod video to a machine running Windows that is set to automatically run iPod applications when it detects a connected iPod. So the easiest way to make sure your PC doesn't get infected is simply to disable the autorun/autoplay capabilities in your iTunes interface. That way, you'll be prompted to approve each application the iPod software wants to run. If your computer asks you to run something called RavMonE.exe, also known as Win32.RJump.a, Troj/Bdoor-DIJ, WORM_SIWEOL.B, Backdoor.Rajump and numerous other names, just say no. In fact, it's probably best to put e-mail rules into effect and just say no to running anything that looks unfamiliar.
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