Malware-infected USB drives accidentally given out as prizes at cyber event

Police in Taiwan were left red-faced recently after handing out virus-infected USB flash drives as prizes at a government-run cyber security event.

Around 250 USB pen sticks were given away at an expo hosted by Taiwan's Presidential Office from between December 11th-15th with the aim of highlighting the government's focus on cracking down on cyber crime.

But 54 of the flash drives contained the XtbSeDuA.exe virus designed to steal personal data and has been linked to fraud, the BBC reports. The Criminal Investigation Bureau (CIB) said 20 of the infected drives have been recovered so far.

Taiwan's national police agency said the malware was inadvertently added by a Taiwan-based supplier.

The CIB revealed that a single employee at the firm had transferred data onto 54 of the drives to "test their storage capacity", but accidentally infected them in the process.

It added that only older, 32-bit computers are vulnerable to the bug and common anti-virus software can detect and quarantine it. The server involved in the latest infections has also been shut down.