Dell confirms malware on motherboards

Dell has shipped a number of replacement motherboards containing malware, although the firm believes the impact will be minimal.

Affected server models are the PowerEdge R310, PowerEdge R410, PowerEdge R510 and PowerEdge T410, said Forrest Norrod, vice president and general manager of server platforms at Dell.

Norrod said the malware "only potentially manifests itself when a customer has a specific configuration and is not running current anti-virus software".

"This issue does not affect systems as shipped from our factory and is limited to replacement parts only. Dell has removed all impacted motherboards from its service supply chain and new shipping replacement stock does not contain the malware," he added.

Less than one per cent of the affected server models will place users at risk of exposure, said Matt McGinnis from the Dell server team on a company server forum.

The malware, known as the W32.Spybot worm, will only affect those with Microsoft Windows operating systems, McGinnis noted.

Furthermore, customers will only expose themselves to infection if they run an update to either Dell's Unified Server Configurator or 32-bit Diagnostics utility.

All "industry-standard antivirus programs on the market today" can stop the code from infecting people's systems, McGinnis said and Dell has not received any reports from customers relating to the malware problem.

Dell joins the list of a growing number of firms that have shipped infected hardware this year.

Last month, Samsung admitted to sending out some S8500 smartphones with malware on.