Apple announced that it has discovered that some of the Video iPods available for purchase after September 12, 2006, were shipped carrying the Windows RavMonE.exe virus.

Less than one percent of Video iPods shipped since 12 September are said to be affected. iPod Nanos and iPod Shuffle devices are not reported to be carrying the malicious file, which can only activate on Windows computers.

“If you have bought a Video iPod in the last month there is a chance that it could have a Windows virus on it,” said Graham Cluley, senior technology consultant for Sophos. “The good news is that if you have kept your anti-virus software up-to-date then your security software should have no trouble detecting it before it can do any harm. The even better news - if you own an Apple computer at least - is that the malware only runs on Windows, not on Mac OS X.”

Sophos notes that presently Apple is not displaying the correct name for the malware on its website, instead referring to it as the RavMonE.exe Windows virus.

“There are a number of different pieces of malware which use a file called RavMonE.exe and so we don’t know at the moment precisely which Trojan horse or virus that may have been shipped,” continued Cluley. “The name RavMonE.exe actually comes from a perfectly legitimate program called RAV Anti-Virus so it would be wrong to call a piece of malware by this name. Hackers sometimes spoof the names of legitimate programs to cause greater confusion.”

As the virus is only effective on Windows, Apple took this opportunity to blame Microsoft for the way it handles security on its Windows operating system. “As you might imagine, we are upset at Windows for not being more hardy against such viruses, and even more upset with ourselves for not catching it,” the statement on Apple’s Web site says.

Apple also offers on its Website links to several free trial anti-virus software, and gives simple instructions on cleaning the infected iPod via iTunes 7.