Another stunning example of corporate responsibility in action.
How would you feel if you purchased a hard drive only to find out that it was infected with a virus? This is exactly what happened to some unsuspecting customers of Seagate's Maxtor Basics 3200 500 GB hard drive model. Some of the units reportedly shipped with a Trojan horse virus that would either search for online gaming passwords and send them to a server in China (according to Seagate), or report all data from the hard drive in question back to a pair of Websites hosted in Beijing (according to some other Website reports I've read).
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Reportedly only 1,800 of the drives reached the sales channel, 1,500 of which were pulled in time. Seagate is offering customers who purchased the infected product with a 60-day trial of Kaspersky Lab's anti-virus software, which is said to be able to remove the virus.Basic math would tell me that only 300 devices were sold with the virus. If you ask me, these guys should get a bit more than a 60-day free trial of some anti-virus software! Sure, it'll cost Seagate to rectify things, but for such a small number of consumers, wouldn't a replacement drive also be warranted in this situation?
Christine is right. As I commented over on the Marketnews blog, the cost of making those customers happy is nothing compared to the cost that Seagate might have to pay later to repair it's reputation.
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7 comments:
Not overly interested? Not true at all. Seagate quickly put a remedy in place to take care of any customers who may have been impacted, in an effort to do right by them. The trial version of the Kaspersky anti-virus soft ware is capable of identifying and removing the virus, and is a lot less hassle for the customer than replacing a product that has their information stored on it and having them start from scratch.
W.Monroy - Seagate
but nowhere near the hassle of have your data bootlegged and reviewed by Chinese intel.
The claim that "any information" on a system will be sent to a server in Beijing is FALSE. The virus gathers passwords for online games only. This claim apparently came from the Taiwan investigative bureau, which as far as we can ascertain has not actually done any investigating on this issue. And Seagate has asked them to issue a retraction.
This situation is unfortunate, but we have no reason to believe, nor is there any indication, that Chinese authorities were involved.
W. Monroy - Seagate
Major privacy issue, handled with a temporary piece of software.
The ghost of Al Shugart still haunts Seagate. Cheapest bastard on the face of the earth.
W.Monroy, thank you for offering Seagate's position, and clarifying the issue.
If Seagate feels that they have best met their customer's needs, then that's what matters.
I still don't trust them sneaky little bastards.
I know they are up to no good!
If some sneaky ChiCom bastard hacks my CounterStrike character because of your damn hard drive, I will own you S.O.B's.
The claim that "any information" on a system will be sent to a server in Beijing is FALSE. The virus gathers passwords for online games only.
Is that like saying the gal you were with last night ONLY has syphilis, and not HIV, as was earlier reported in the health clinic?
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