Apple Ships A Windows Virus—Inside iPods.

Will the techno world ever get rid of viruses? The latest report says Apple has been shipping a Windows virus on the new version of iPods.

That’s yet another great reason to own a Mac. For now. Who knows what tomorrow brings.

Playlist has reported news from Apple that some iPods with video shipped after September 12, 2006 have a virus.

It’s a Windows virus known as the RavMonE.exe which is well known to Windows anti-virus software.

The RavMonE.exe will propagate on Windows PCs via hard drives and other mass storage devices.

These would include external hard drives, removable media such as USB flash drives.

As you might suspect, Apple is downplaying the incident and reported that the virus was limited to less than 1-percent of iPod shipments.

1-percent? Is that of total iPod shipments? That could be tens of thousands of iPods.

Are Macs affected by this iPod virus? The answer is a qualified yes. And no.

No, Mac OS X will not be directly affected by the RavMonE virus. Macs running Windows could be affected.

In an odd and ironic turn of events, Apple has posted a web page to alert iPod Windows users how to handle the iPod virus.

Apple also provided links to Microsoft, Symantec, and McAfee antri-virus applications.

Mac users, whether on PPC or Intel Macs, not running Windows will not be affected by this virus.

While it’s unusual for an electronic manufacturer to ship a product with a known virus, it has happened in the past.

Playlist also quoted Greg Joswiak, Apple’s VP of Worldwide iPod Marketing:

In this case no additional blame needs to be ascribed to Microsft’s Windows. Viruses, spyware, and malware are common to Windows users.

Apple need only point a finger at themselves for letting another Windows virus spread via one of their own popular products. Why?

What goes around, comes around.

When viruses finally hit Mac OS X, I can just envision the USA Today full page ad by Microsoft: “Windows welcomes OS X to the world of PC viruses.”

It could happen.