This article is more than 1 year old

Whirlpool allows old stains to linger on Kitchenaid.com site

Warnings put through spin cycle

Domestic appliance manufacturer Whirlpool has come under fire for failing to clean up a malware infection on one of its sites, months after it was notified of a problem by UK anti-virus firm Sophos.

Sophos tried for months to clean-up its Kitchenaid.com website, without success, before going public on the problem on Friday. The kitchen utensil selling site remains infected with the Badsrc-C (AKA Asprox) strain of malware five months after a Sophos customer reported a problem, which the security firm forwarded to the white goods firm.

The malicious script points towards nowhere at present, so there isn't an immediate risk. The problem is that this may change at any time, hence the need for remedial action that Whirlpool seems reluctant to take.

"I and several of my colleagues have been trying to talk to contacts at KitchenAid and Whirlpool to inform them of the issue and offer assistance. We have consistently hit brick walls," reports senior Sophos threat analyst Paul Baccas.

Whirlpool's lack of action is symptomatic of a wider problem. Reports of malware problems on websites are hard even for security firms to send to the right person, are often disregarded and sometimes met with indignation, Baccas writes.

We dropped a note to Kitchenaid's US PR agency on Friday, but are yet to hear back on its side of the story.

The Asprox strain of malware still lingering on Kitchenaid.com's website has been linked to phishing spam. SQL injection attacks on vulnerable website have been a preferred method for spreading malware. ®

More about

More about

More about

TIP US OFF

Send us news


Other stories you might like