During a cybersecurity-related quiz hosted by the presidential Office in Taiwan, the Taiwanese police awarded the winners with malware infected USB sticks.
According to local reports, the National police ... the Criminal Investigation Bureau (CBI) awarded 250 USB drives of 8GB capacity, of which 54 of those drives were infected with a Chinese malware.
The malware which is known as XtbSeDuA.exe was designed to steal users data and send to a Polish IP address, though the IP address was shut down by Europol back in 2015 on a major crackdown on an electric fraud ring.
According to Taipei, the USB drives were purchased from contractors and made in China, though the Bureau believes that the malware wasn't part of a Chinese cyber espionage. Adding that the infection came from an infected work station at New Taipei City-based contractor Shawo Hwa Industries Co when an employee at the company used the affected computer to transfer an operating so as to test the USB drives and their capacity, thus transmitting the malware onto 54 units of the USB drives.
About 20 units of the USB drives were retrieved after their users complained that their anti-virus software flagged the USB drives. 34 of those USB drives are still in the wild.
The National Security Officials have expressed sadness over the incident that has compromised such a high profile event, expressing concerns that it might have been a deliberate attack by a hack group.
The Bureau has apologized to the Presidential Office as well all other government agencies that took part in the event. The Bureau has launched another probe into the incident.