Saturday, May 22, 2010

Doofus Of The Day #354


Today's award goes to the marketing and/or promotions department of IBM Australia.

IBM has been left with egg on its face after it distributed virus-laden USB keys to attendees at Australia's biggest computer security conference.

Delegates of the AusCERT conference, held over the past week at the Royal Pines Resort on the Gold Coast, were told about the malware problem in a warning email this afternoon by IBM Australia chief technologist Glenn Wightwick.

The incident is ironic because conference attendees include the who's who of the computer security world and IBM was there to show off its security credentials.

Some attendees may have thought they were experiencing dejavu as Telstra was left red-faced at the 2008 AusCERT conference for also distributing malware-infected USB drives.

. . .

AusCERT attendee Tom Piotrowski, managing director of IT security company Unixpac, said he was left "speechless" by the incident.

"Hundreds of IT security professionals make a pilgrimage to AusCERT each year," he said.

"Delegates are going there to listen about the latest developments in security technology ... just think how big an embarrassment a boo-boo like this must be for IBM."


There's more at the link.

I can only assume that someone's career at IBM Australia has just come to a grinding halt!

Peter

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