Expert: Brian Benosky - 6/9/2008

Question
I've heard from a computer talk show on the radio, that it is possible for virus and such, can hide themselves in the printer's memory or other USB related hardware and that most conventional virus scans can't detect them. I tried looking for more info on this but can't find any.

Also, on my friend's computer, Windows ME and McAfee, whenever he plugs anything onto the USB port, he gets a virus warning about a suspicious script, from the HP update file.

Answer
Hi Ron

Malware can only reside in some type of memory container.  It may be a hard drive, a cd, smartcard, usb stick, etc.  While most printers have a memory chip, it cannot be written to in the normal fashion.  The virus would have to be written to the printer at the factory.  It may be theoretically possible to infect a printer, but I have never run across a mention of one in the wild.  More likely, a printer's driver can become infected.  But drivers are maintained by the host operating system (Windows), so detection and removal are done through normal virus scans.  
As for your friends problem, chances are it is a false positive.  Many scripts can look like virus signatures, yet are completely benign.  Some scanners are better at distinguishing between scripts than others.  Tell him to run an online virus scan to be sure.  I believe that Trend HouseCall supports ME:
http://housecall.trendmicro.com/
Hope that helps.  If you have any further questions, just let me know.

Brian