The RIAA is not the only boring threat related with mp3 music. In fact, some viruses and trojans can be embedded in mp3 files, and can cause damage on computers.

With the increasing widespread use of portable players, there is also a rise in the risk of becoming infected if an infected device is connected to a computer.

McAfee released a new version of Stinger, a tool to detects and cleans potential threats on such devices. According to Kartik Shahani, Director, Sales, India and SAARC, McAfee:

Stinger works as a standalone utility and is not a complete anti-virus solution. “It is designed only to clean a certain variety of viruses, in this case those affecting MP3 files,” said Shahani. The tool can be downloaded free of cost from the McAfee Web site. It can then be run as an executable file on the user’s computer. When it detects an MP3 player connecting through USB, it scans through the player’s library and gives the user the options to quarantine, clean or delete the file. Further, the tool is also able to scan already existing MP3 files on the system and repair them in case of an infection.

Even if many (or maybe most) mp3 files come from P2P sources, even who never downloaded anything from these sources can become infected if a USB device is connected to a computer, so this tool will be useful to prevent trouble.

McAfee released this tool as freeware.


Source: expresscomputer