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Report: Memory card exposed 3,000 phones to virus

Malware found in HTC Magic phones has been traced back to memory cards that shipped in about 3,000 phones, according to report citing Vodafone.

Elinor Mills Former Staff Writer
Elinor Mills covers Internet security and privacy. She joined CNET News in 2005 after working as a foreign correspondent for Reuters in Portugal and writing for The Industry Standard, the IDG News Service and the Associated Press.
Elinor Mills
HTC Magic Crave UK

Vodafone has discovered that malware found on several it distributed came from the memory cards, which were shipped in about 3,000 HTC and other phones, according to a published report.

Spanish language blog Movil Zona reported that Vodafone said it was immediately sending new memory cards to people who bought phones using those cards.

After malware related to the Mariposa botnet was discovered on a second HTC Magic phone from Vodafone this week, a Vodafone spokesperson issued a statement to CNET on Thursday saying it was a "local incident in Spain."

In response to questions about the latest report, the spokesperson provided an e-mail statement on Friday that said: "Vodafone Spain has identified customers that could potentially be affected by the incident and Vodafone Spain will be sending these customers a new memory card. Additionally, Vodafone Spain will provide these customers with tools to verify and fix the integrity of their devices."

Updated at 3:35 p.m. PDT with latest Vodafone statement.