TECH | A Virus In Your Music Collection?

Ok, I couldn’t help myself! More Zune bashing…

So Microsoft's mildly hyped iPod challenger, Zune, is ready to hit the market. One of its most-talked-about features is wireless song sharing through WiFi.

For the sake of argument, yes, that feature could make Zune stand out from the iPod. I think Leander did a great job of explaining why it isn't quite the killer app it's assumed to be in his column yesterday, but there's another aspect to WiFi sharing that is a potential hazard: Malware.

What features exist to verify that a file that looks like a legit mp3 or wma file is in fact a wma file? The Zune is built on existing Toshiba platform, and some folks out there know how to write software for it, some of which could be malicious.

I don't think this is paranoia. A co-worker with a Treo caught a wireless virus at the airport awhile back (It's like living in the future!), and it would have then moved onto his computer and replicated across the Internet if our IT guy hadn't caught it. Think about a file advertising itself as a leaked recording by a popular artist that actually is an audio file on a Zune, but when you sync it to your computer, it launches a wizard disguised as a software update, you click OK and all hell breaks loose.

Source | Cult Of Mac