Apple's new iPad has been taken down by malware within a few weeks of it being in the shops. It is an article of faith amongst Apple fanboys that Jobs' Mob gear is super secure and malware only exists on Windows machines.

Despite the fact that Apple gear is turned over regularly at security conferences, they have been safe because hackers seem to have ignored devices which are on less than five per cent of the world's machines. Now it seems that scammers are distributing e-mails designed to trick iPad owners into downloading software that they think is an iTunes update, but which turns out to be malware that opens a back door on the computer.

BitDefender says that the emails have a subject line that says "iPad Software Update" and offer a link to a Web page that looks like a legitimate iTunes download page. The link installs malware identified as Backdoor.Bifrose.AADY, according to the BitDefender blog. The malware injects itself in to the "explorer.exe" process and opens up a back door that attackers can use to take control of the system whenever they want, the post said. It also attempts to read the keys and serial numbers of the various software programs installed on the computer and logs passwords to the victim's ICQ, Messenger, and POP3 mail accounts, and protected storage.

It is not clear why the scammers are targeting the iPad, there are not that many of them out there. They must have just assumed that anyone who is daft enough to buy a netbook without a keyboard for twice the price and believes they are invulnerable to malware must be a sucker who will click the link to their malware.