Aug 18, 2010 15:59 GMT  ·  By

New Mexico Secretary of State Mary Herrera is accused by her office's administrator of unethical behavior and possible law violations resulting from her laptop being infected with malware.

Office Administrator Manny Vildasol used a secret camera to record how an IT staffer was trying to clean "158 viruses" out of Ms. Herrera's state-issued portable computer.

In an e-mail to KOB TV News, the office manager claims that there were also links to adult-oriented websites on the laptop's desktop, a possible result of the infections.

Deputy Secretary of State Francisco Trujillo and Secretary Herrera acknowledged the malware problem, but they both denied the presence of any offensive links or content on the computer.

What's shocking about this story is that apparently the laptop was not protected by any anti-virus program. "The laptop was never properly installed with our staff anti-virus software [...]," Mr. Trujillo said.

It was, however, infected with a piece of scareware called Defense Center, a rogue program which poses as an antivirus and tries to scare the user into paying for a license by displaying fake alerts.

When questioned about the incident, Ms. Herrera revealed to KOB that the malware problem was even more serious and extended beyond just her laptop.

According to the Secretary of State, as much as five computers in her office, including the one used for human resources, were found to be infected.

Mr. Vildasol said there are additional implications, but he cannot discuss the details, because of an ongoing FBI investigation.

"I can't give over those particulars because that information has been given over to the FBI and they are currently investigating, but there are issues of criminal activity and unethical behavior and it violates not only policy and procedure but also the law," he stressed.