McDonald's Japan malware attack

In 2006, McDonald's in collaboration with Coca-Cola ran a promotion in Japan that lasted for 1 month. During this promotion, 10,000 winners obtained a USB-stick MP3 player.^[1][2] When Japanese winners received their MP3 players and inserted them into their computers, it was discovered that the products additionally carried malware meant for Windows operating systems.^[3][4][5]

On 4 August, 2006 across Japan, McDonald's collaborated with Coca-Cola to run a promotion which lasted until 31 August, 2006. During this promotion, customers would peel a code from a cup and type the code onto their website, with 10,000 selected winners obtaining a USB-stick MP3 player loaded with ten free songs.^[1][2] Winners who received the McDonald's MP3 Player would be infected with a Trojan Horse called QQPass Trojan that would affect devices running the popular Windows versions at the time. QQPass Trojan worked to first disable the device's antivirus(es), and then if the user was running was QQ Instant Messenger, it would capture password information and forward it via e-mail to a malicious third-party.^[3][4][5]

On 7 August 2006, McDonald's issued a public apology for any consumers infected from the incident. The company offered a web link that removed the malware from computers and allowed winners to return their MP3 players for a free replacement.^[6][7]

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  McDonald's Japan 2006 Google Translate Page apology and request for MP3 players.
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  McDonald's Japan Customer Support Page in 2006.
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  McDonald's Official Statement regarding 2006 Japan malware incident.