It is bad enough that the average person comes across malware, spyware or any of the derivatives of a virus on a daily basis. If you thought installing a firewall or rushing over to anti-virus store outlets were bad enough, check out what just happened to a factory sealed mobile phone.

An employee from anti-virus software company Panda Research has reported her discovery of some malware called “Mariposa” installed on her new HTC Magic phone carrying the Google Android OS. She got her mobile phone from the British multinational mobile phone operator Vodafone according to the official Panda Research blog.

It appears that the employee’s Panda Cloud Anti-virus software detected the malware after she plugged her fresh-out-of-the-box mobile phone to her work computer for the first time. Autorun.inf and autorun.exe files were the cause for the anti-virus notification as well as a Lineage password stealing malware and a Confiker virus variant. The mobile phone was set up to infect any PC the phone was connected to as well as any other PCs in the network.

After the problem was isolated, it seems that the micro SD memory card that came with the mobile phone was to blame. The phone itself and the Google Android operating system were in the clear.

Because of this incident, Panda Research is planning to do check other HTC Magic phones to see if others are infected as well. So far, no other reports have been posted, and it is most likely an isolated incident. Perhaps the carrier just did a sloppy job of wiping the memory of a refurbished SD card or they just received a bad egg from their suppliers.

Either way, it seems that the problem will be contained because Vodafone has just recently discontinued their HTC Magic line. It creates a new issue though because the only Android OS device in its stocks right now is the Tattoo.

Head over to Engadget for more information about the malware found in the Magic.