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McDonalds Japan Distributes Infected MP3 Players 168

Posted by kdawson from the super-sized-trojan dept.
Tamas Feher from Hungary writes, "Finnish antivirus vendor F-Secure reports that Mcdonalds in Japan distributed 10,000 infected MP3 players as customer prizes in a promotion with Coca-Cola. The USB sticks contained 10 free songs plus the QQPass Trojan, which is intended to steal login data. F-Secure reports that they have heard, but cannot confirm, that simply plugging the USB device into a Windows PC is sufficient to get infected. Investigation is still going on, but the mishap apparently happened in Hong Kong. Patrons nationwide are urged to quickly return their M-logoed sticks for replacement or call a 24hr hotline, if unsure." Here is the Mcdonalds Japan announcement (in Japanese, but Babelfish at Altavista handles it well).
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McDonalds Japan Distributes Infected MP3 Players More

McDonalds Japan Distributes Infected MP3 Players

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  • So Remember Parents (Score:5, Funny)

    by eldavojohn ( 898314 ) * <eldavojohn@gSTRAWmail.com minus berry> on Monday October 16, 2006 @01:31PM (#16456175) Journal
    It's 'ok' to leave Ronald McDonald alone with your children but you keep him the hell away from your computer.
    • Only if Ronald McDonald doesn't have Mad Cow disease. Moooo!

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by mnmn ( 145599 )
      Even better.

      Its OK to return what you buy from McDonalds after use if it is not too healthy.

  • would you like fries ... (Score:4, Funny)

    by thrillseeker ( 518224 ) on Monday October 16, 2006 @01:32PM (#16456195)
    and a virus with that mp3?

    • Re:would you like fries ... (Score:5, Funny)

      by betterunixthanunix ( 980855 ) on Monday October 16, 2006 @01:50PM (#16456535)
      I didn't know Sony had a contract with MacDonald's...

    • I'll have a soda too ... (Score:1, Funny)

      by Anonymous Coward
      would you like fries ... and a virus with that mp3?


      Yeah, give me the Big Hack combo.

    • Re: (Score:2, Insightful)

      by drpimp ( 900837 )
      I would rather have a virus with my mp3's any one day over a biological virus with my food. As long as they don't migrate into biological virus distribution, I am fine with that. Unless of course you call contributing to the American obesity disease due to high fast food fat consumption a virus, then all deals are off. Thank God McDonald's is not in my list of places I frequent.

  • Uh Oh! (Score:5, Funny)

    by Anonymous Coward on Monday October 16, 2006 @01:33PM (#16456199)
    (in Japanese, but Babelfish at Altavista handles it well).
    Yeah, that worked so well for Zero Wing.

    • Re:Uh Oh! (Score:5, Funny)

      by CommunistHamster ( 949406 ) <communisthamster@gmail.com> on Monday October 16, 2006 @02:23PM (#16457019)
      In A.D. 2006

      Meal was beginning.

      Customer: What happen?

      Slashdotter: McDonalds set up us the free mp3 player.

      Slashdotter: You get virus.

      Customer: What !

      Lawyer: Main bank account turn on.

      Customer: It's You !!

      Ronald McDonald: How are you gentlemen !!

      Ronald McDonald: All your passwords are belong to us.

      Ronald McDonald: You are on the way to obesity.

      Customer: What you say !!

      Ronald McDonald: You have no chance to be thin make your time.

      Ronald McDonald: FAT FAT FAT FAT ....

      Customer: Take off every 'lawyer' !!

      Customer: You know what you doing.

      Customer: Move 'lawyer'.

      Customer: For great lawsuit.

    • (in Japanese, but Babelfish at Altavista handles it well).

      Yeah, that worked so well for Zero Wing.

      Must... resist... temptation... aargh!

      Western calendar 2101
      fight started.
      Captain: Just that how it did, word you bore!
      Engineer: No person it seems that it could set up the explosive according to.
      Communication operator: Captain! Communication entered!
      Captain: No!
      Communication operator: Vision comes to the main screen.
      Captain: As for you!
      CATS: Don't you think? busily so is, the ladies and gentlemen.
      CATS: With th

  • McDonalds doubles your pleasure (Score:5, Funny)

    by Salvance ( 1014001 ) on Monday October 16, 2006 @01:33PM (#16456203) Homepage Journal
    Congratulations! You've won a year's supply of clogged arteries and a reformatted hard drive.

    • Re: (Score:3, Funny)

      by Teresita ( 982888 )
      Here, give the USB stick to me, I'll stick it into my Debian box and let it reformat my C drive or any other NTFS/FAT32 hard disk it can find.
  • ...you should see the fries.

  • McTranslation (Score:5, Funny)

    by Anonymous Coward on Monday October 16, 2006 @01:34PM (#16456243)
    2006 October 13th

    Our company campaign prize "MP3 player"
    In regard to virus infection

    This time, the Mcdonald's Co., Ltd. corporation August, "the MP3 player (below, this prize September 29th dispatch)" of the prize in the sales promotion campaign which is executed part having been infected to the virus was ascertained.
    As for this virus there is a possibility of being infected by the fact that this prize is connected to the personal computer. Therefore, in order use not to do this prize to the customer, we inform.
    As factual concern rapidly and it pursues cause, in order that annoyance of the customer is stopped in minimum, you take concerning future correspondence and hurry and report.

    1. Summary and condition of infection virus
    The virus of Troy wooden horse type, the worm and the spy wear were discovered.
    As a phenomenon, the occasion where this prize is connected to the personal computer, on that personal computer "the Chinese memo pad stands up", "message of virus inspection was made", and so on you question and 7 cases have received wooden pail communication in as of 12 days.

    2. Customer correspondence
    (1) the returns doing rapidly, we execute or less all notification activity in order to receive.
    The @ direct call to the customer who is elected and execution of the direct mail
    NotificationonA our company home page
    Notification with B shop front
    Notification with C newspaper medium
    (2) as for this virus there is a possibility of being infected by the fact that this prize is connected to the personal computer. Therefore, in order use not to do this prize to the customer, we inform.
    Thing of the personal computer where the customer who this prize is used has become in use was considered and the system which download it can receive the virus extermination software was constructed. We link the downloadsight from the MacDonaldhome page.
    (3) concerning the MP3 player of the prize, making all item collect rapidly, as soon as to receive, be able to prepare you exchange with the new item.


    MP3 inquiry Executive Office
    Presently TEL. 03 - 5148 - 509924 hour systems
    October 14th (Saturday) 9:00AM - TEL. 0120 - 221 - 04724 hour systems (October 22nd (day) to) TEL. 0120 - 221 - 0479: 00 - 21: 00 (October 23rd (month) from)
    MacDonald
    Home page Http: //www.mcdonalds.co.jp/


    3. Infection route of virus and cause of infection
    As for this prize the marketing store corporation (Hong Kong) from it is something which is delivered. Concerning the cause of infection, presently it is in the midst of investigating. Being placed on the customer, very much, you say and do not divide, apologize deeply. As in the future similar thing does not occur, it starts strengthening company internal system more.



    MP3 campaign summary
    Of period: August 4th (gold) - 31 days (wood) [ prize dispatch target date: September 29th (gold) ]
    Prize item: Original music entering MP3 player
    The number of successful candidates: 10,000 people
    Application method: At the private portable campaign sight it inputs the serial number which is stated in the drink of L size during period, challenges in the game.

    • Re: (Score:1)

      by kfg ( 145172 )
      . . .the occasion where this prize is connected to the personal computer, on that personal computer "the Chinese memo pad stands up", "message of virus inspection was made", and so on you question and 7 cases have received wooden pail communication in as of 12 days.

      Assembly of Japanese-English translation require great peace of mind.

      KFG

      • Re: (Score:2)

        by snuf23 ( 182335 )
        "have received wooden pail communication"

        Hmmmm and I was led to believe that Japan was high tech. Or is there something highly advanced about these wooden pails they use for communication.

    • Re:McTranslation (Score:5, Funny)

      by scuba_steve_1 ( 849912 ) on Monday October 16, 2006 @01:42PM (#16456387)
      "The virus of Troy wooden horse type"

      Thank god. I had feared that it might be a "subterranean tree water absorption tendril type kit." Whew.
    • *Stretches out* Okay, here goes nothing... 2006 October 13th In regard to our company MR3 player prize virus infection The Mcdonald's Co., Ltd. corporation August's recent prize promotion contained a virus in the MP3 player. It is possible that users could be infection just by connecting the prize to their PC. Therefore we ask that customers do not connect their prize MP3 player to their PC. In order to minimize customer annoyance we recommend you report the prize to us as soon as possible. 1. Summary o
      • If you're going to take the trouble, we might as well see the line breaks:

        -----------
        *Stretches out* Okay, here goes nothing...

        2006 October 13th

        In regard to our company MR3 player prize virus infection

        The Mcdonald's Co., Ltd. corporation August's recent prize promotion contained a virus in the MP3 player. It is possible that users could be infection just by connecting the prize to their PC. Therefore we ask that customers do not connect their prize MP3 player to their PC. In order to minimize customer annoy

    • Re:McTranslation (Score:4, Funny)

      by Amouth ( 879122 ) on Monday October 16, 2006 @02:21PM (#16456985)
      "The virus of Troy wooden horse type" - that just screams bad Anime dubs
    • We have determined that a portion of the MP3 Players distributed in August as part of a special promotion have been compromised by virii. This virus is capable of infecting a computer when the Player is connected. We strongly advise that customers not connect these players to their computers. We promise to promptly investigate what caused this to happen and do everything possible to minimize damage to our customers, and will keep you apprised of any changes.

      1. Symptoms of Virus Infection

      We have found Tr

  • different kinds (Score:5, Funny)

    by User 956 ( 568564 ) on Monday October 16, 2006 @01:34PM (#16456245) Homepage
    Why do I get the impression that if they had included the 'other' kind of Trojan [trojancondoms.com], the outrage would have been much greater?

  • What you say? (Score:4, Funny)

    by Rob T Firefly ( 844560 ) on Monday October 16, 2006 @01:36PM (#16456273) Homepage Journal
    Via Babelfish:
    1. Summary and condition of infection virus The virus of Troy wooden horse type, the worm and the spy wear were discovered. As a phenomenon, the occasion where this prize is connected to the personal computer, on that personal computer "the Chinese memo pad stands up", "message of virus inspection was made", and so on you question and 7 cases have received wooden pail communication in as of 12 days.
    "Wooden pail communication" is the best phrase ever. Is that Japanese for spam?

    • Re:What you say? (Score:5, Funny)

      by thebdj ( 768618 ) on Monday October 16, 2006 @01:41PM (#16456361) Journal
      No, best phrase ever: antisuckback device. (With antisuckback appearing as one word.) It was a machine translation of a Japanese technical document. Thankfully, electrical symbols being the same, I deciphered the antisuckback device to be a diode.

      • Re: (Score:2)

        by Servo ( 9177 )
        Actually, that makes sense. That is kinda what a diode does.

      • Re: (Score:2)

        by Eivind ( 15695 )
        Antisuckbackdevice is a rather logical word for a diode, no ?

        It's hard to avoid this sometimes, even for us humans.

        You should've seen the reaction of my Canadian friends when I was momentarily unable to recall that you guys refer to certain devices as "vacuum-cleaner", and instead translated my native word for same device.

        "Dustsucker"

        Blank stare. Incomprehension. Sudden spark of insigth. Laugther. Rather a lot of the latter.

        The name makes perfect sense, and it's what its called in atleast Norwegia

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by Speare ( 84249 )
      Just a beginner in kanji, but maybe it was a mistake involving cross-language slang 'okay' vs the Japanese word 'oke'.

    • Re:What you say? (Score:4, Informative)

      by brusk ( 135896 ) on Monday October 16, 2006 @02:24PM (#16457047)
      Actually it's a pretty remarkable error: it misparses a verb ending -ta (to itta, "that said") and puts the last syllable with the prefix go (from "gorenraku", "your communications") so that they together become the word "tago," a rare term for a wooden water pail.

      Something is seriously wrong with Babelfish here (Google gets this passage righter): the English translation has a Hiragana "little tsu" in it, indicating that the translation system is not recognizing it as Japanese at all. Or something. Oops.

  • Test Case? (Score:2, Funny)

    by sehlat ( 180760 )
    For a new "viral marketing" scheme?
  • and so does wikipedia http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hong_Kong [wikipedia.org]
    Hong Kong Special Administrative Region of the People's Republic of China apparently, so how come McDonalds Japan is getting blamed for this?
    • The mishap happened in Hong Kong. These Hong Kongese (or whatever) infected USB sticks got distributed to McDonald's Japan, who distributed them to "lucky" winners.

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by Detritus ( 11846 )
      Probably because the largest regional office of McDonald's is in Japan. McDonald's has restaurants all over Asia. McDonald's was building restaurants in Hong Kong when it was still under the control of the UK and mainland China was closed to the West.

    • Re: (Score:2, Insightful)

      by coobird ( 960609 )

      Whether Hong Kong is part of China or not doesn't really have a bearing. Bottom line is, McDonald's in Japan bought some USB keys from a company in Hong Kong, and those keys were infected with a trojan horse. That's the bottom line.

      As for McDonald's Japan getting the blame, it's similar to the way Dell was blamed for the exploding batteries -- Although the batteries themselves was made by Sony, it was Dell laptops which were catching fire. It's their product, they need to stand behind it if it's defective

  • problems at Wendy's (Score:4, Funny)

    by krell ( 896769 ) on Monday October 16, 2006 @01:38PM (#16456323) Journal
    At least the McDonald's deep-fried MP3 sticks did not come with a finger.exe command.

  • I bet that made a few people grimace.. (Score:3, Funny)

    by Channard ( 693317 ) on Monday October 16, 2006 @01:42PM (#16456391) Journal
    ... still, I guess you're okay if you're an Apple MacDonalds user.

  • Can you just see the settlement now? (Score:4, Funny)

    by Dunbal ( 464142 ) on Monday October 16, 2006 @01:42PM (#16456395)
    I can see it now - a huge lawsuit, but McDonald's and Coca Cola will settle out of court. What the settlement will boil down to is $40,000,000 US for the attorneys, and a choice of supersizing their combo or a free apple pie for the victims...
    • "I can see it now - a huge lawsuit, but McDonald's and Coca Cola will settle out of court. What the settlement will boil down to is $40,000,000 US for the attorneys, and a choice of supersizing their combo or a free apple pie for the victims..."

      Or they'll settle out of court for a NICE HOT CUP OF MCDONALD'S COFFEE !!!!
      • Or they'll settle out of court for a NICE HOT CUP OF MCDONALD'S COFFEE !!!!


        Not if either party has Jack Thompson as its lawyer.

  • I'm lovin' it! (Score:1, Offtopic)

    by JakiChan ( 141719 )
    Getting totally pwn3d - I'm lovin in!

    Last time I was in Tokyo they had the "teritama burger". Take the meat, egg, and cheese part of a susage McMuffin, pour teriyaki sauce on it, and put it on a hamburger bun. Best. Burger. Evar. I was flying back business class and I took one on the plane with me cuz it was better than the plane food.

    (I would have said it was the bomb but you know how uptight those security guys are.)

    • Re: (Score:3, Interesting)

      by antifoidulus ( 807088 )
      They have all sorts of crazy fast food there, it's amazingly creative. The McDonalds in Japan are better than the ones in the states which in turn are better than the ones in Europe where I am right now(though they don't have infected mp3 players...yet).

      Actually, I would have to say that fast food(and ramen shops where 500 yen can get you a huge bowl of awesome ramen) is one of the things I miss most about living in Japan. Though the beer here in Germany does help to compensate :P
      • When asked what I wanted for work while in Japan my co-workers were tired of hearing "ramen". There was a great ramen-ya near the office and I could eat there every day if asked. Their gyoza was da shiznit.

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by jZnat ( 793348 ) *
      You could have said it was the shit, but that slang doesn't seem to be understood by everyone (what, you mean it's shitty?).
  • Oh wait, wrong country.
  • First a story about loss of privacy concerning personal data, now this story about Ronald taking your bank account login details? Why weren't fast food companies mentioned in 1984?

  • Sony Thumbdrives? (Score:3, Funny)

    by maggard ( 5579 ) <michael@michaelmaggard.com> on Monday October 16, 2006 @01:56PM (#16456635) Homepage Journal

    What'll get you first; the rootkit, the battery fire, or the really awful music?/p?

  • I suggest a change of motto. (Score:3, Funny)

    by suparjerk ( 784861 ) on Monday October 16, 2006 @01:59PM (#16456689)
    "McDonalds: Making you AND your computer sick."
  • I'd be more worried about what they put into their "food".

  • Automatic infection may be possible (Score:5, Informative)

    by _xeno_ ( 155264 ) on Monday October 16, 2006 @02:00PM (#16456703) Homepage Journal

    According to the Microsoft USB FAQ [microsoft.com], it is possible to create a USB device which Windows will Autorun. Since Microsoft doesn't include anchors within the document to allow me to link directly to the question, it is:

    Q: What must I do to trigger Autorun on my USB storage device?
    The Autorun capabilities are restricted to CD-ROM drives and fixed disk drives. If you need to make a USB storage device perform Autorun, the device must not be marked as a removable media device and the device must contain an Autorun.inf file and a startup application.

    So, yes, it is possible to make a USB storage device trigger Autorun and run a trojan. I don't know if it's possible in this case, but it is theoretically possible to do with a USB device.

    • Re:Automatic infection may be possible (Score:4, Informative)

      by Aqua_boy17 ( 962670 ) on Monday October 16, 2006 @02:26PM (#16457077)
      It is possible. If you've bought a SanDisk stick lately, they started put all these stupid 'bonus' utilities on the stick that auto-launch whenever you connect it. I found this extremely annoying and was surprised that they'd do this to their customers. I did finally find a post where someone had found a removal tool on the SanDisk site (it's near impossible to remove on your own - stuff is cached and keeps re-installing) and cleared it that way. That will be the last thing I buy from this company as I no longer trust them.

    • Re:Automatic infection may be possible (Score:5, Interesting)

      by Darth_brooks ( 180756 ) <clipper377&gmail,com> on Monday October 16, 2006 @02:46PM (#16457419) Homepage
      Windows will read an autorun.inf file on the memory sticks the same way it does for CD's/DVD's, but it will only perform certain actions if it decides the device is removable media. You can test this by creating an autorun.inf containing the full list of autorun commands on a memory stick. Harmless commands (such as ICON=SOMEICON.ICO) will be run, but potentially dangerous commands (such as Shellexec=, Open=, etc.) are supposed to be ignored. My vauge memory tells me that Microsoft initially stated that an Autorun.inf would be completely ignored on a removable device, (which is what lead me to start tinkering with the file in the first place) but I've got no real proof of that.

      It seemed funny that such a simple script with such dangerous potential would be called in the same way. Is it really that hard to have the OS treat removable devices in a completely different manner (rather than the apparent "eh, just hack it together and make it work" that's there now) than read-only devices?

      I always thought it'd be fun to have a USB key that autoran a batch file or VBS script that copied C:\Documents and Settings\* or C:\My Music\* to my thumb drive. "Plug and Play" turned into "Plug and take." Or, if I wasn't feeling malicious, having my thumb drive install a custom MSI of a few useful apps such as pre-configured firefox and putty on public terminals (thus saving me those precious, precious four whole steps....God I'm lazy.) But it didn't take long for me to figure out that the official answer to that was a resounding "no."

      I'm very curious how the autorun is being exploited. Is it bluffing the OS into thinking the USB drive is really a CD/DVD, or is there something else afoot here?
      • remember though there is nothing stopping a memory stick identifying itself as a hard drive or CD drive rather than a removable media drive.

        • The OS does the identifying, the sticks give very little information about themselves. The stick has to have some pretty clever firmware hacks to show as a non-removable device.
  • This seems to be an infected memory stick, not a player. That would be some serious news, by itself, if McDonalds was giving out MP3 players with meals in Japan, viros or not.
  • ...the burgers aren't the only things at McDonalds that should be served with some serious antibiotics! NOTE: yeah, before you call me on this, I *know* that antibiotics are only good against bacteria, and don't work against virii. Then again, anyone that calls me out probably isn't susceptible to antibiotics either, as you probably need a life to be susceptible to them...
  • "Patrons nationwide are urged to quickly return their M-logoed sticks for replacement..."

    Somehow I think replacement is the least of their worries.
  • ..then whatever McDonalds does is the least of people's worries. The users have real computer problems, which go way beyond any one-time viral threat.
  • ...which can't possibly infect your computer.

    Oh, wait...

  • Oh I see (Score:5, Funny)

    by eebra82 ( 907996 ) on Monday October 16, 2006 @02:14PM (#16456881) Homepage
    Next week's headlines: McDonalds aquire McAfee.
  • I can't wait for the law requirinq malign electronic life checkings (and sterelization) for all consumer electronic devices...
  • A new product line:
    Burger, small fries, small soft drink, memory stick containing the QQPass Trojan. - The unhappy meal.
  • McDonalds jingle You Deserve a Break Today [slashdot.org] done by American Idol Judge, Barry Manilow.
  • This looks like an accident, the incident where IO Data shipped external drives with a remote access trojan preinstalled looks like an accident.

    What's to stop something like this from happening on purpose?

    Let A be a Taiwanese OEM living on margins as thin as a supermodel. Let B be a spyware company that pretends its products are legitimate and bring valuable commercial notices to the end users. B is willing to pay money to get its product in front of eyeballs. Company A will take every New Taiwan Dollar (ab

  • Oh dear... (Score:2, Funny)

    by dino303 ( 876573 )
    ...and I always though Mac users are safe from viruses

  • Good news! (Score:5, Funny)

    by lunartik ( 94926 ) on Monday October 16, 2006 @02:56PM (#16457583) Homepage Journal
    Interpol has identified a suspect [wikipedia.org].

  • Mmmmmmm. (Score:4, Funny)

    by SeaFox ( 739806 ) on Monday October 16, 2006 @03:07PM (#16457793)
    Patrons nationwide are urged to quickly return their M-logoed sticks for replacement or call a 24hr hotline, if unsure.


    They're labeled M for malicious!

  • Huh? (Score:2)

    by omeg ( 907329 )
    Am I missing something here? What on earth does Hong Kong have to do with Japan?
  • They steal your bank account number and then put $7,50 on each day and then appears a message that if you don't go to McDonalds and spend your 7,50 that your hard disk will be wiped. Once you are addicted they stop giving you free money...

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by Servo ( 9177 )
      Too late for that. McDonald's already steals a heck of a lot more than that from some people.
  • Me and my trojaned MP3 stick
    Stole my password, now I'm assed out
    Wish they just had the Monopoly
    Game like in that other country

    Ba da da da daaa
    I'm hatin' it :(
  • Cardiovascular disease, diabetes mellitus, and malware! Where do I sign up?

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