ZDNet.com reports that Russian anti-virus specialists Kaspersky Lab has discovered what is believed to be the first proof-of-concept virus designed specifically to infect Apple’s iPod devices.

Fortunately, the Podloso virus only works on iPods that have the Linux operating system installed on them. The “virus” isn’t even contagious – you have to manually install it onto a Linux iPod for it to work.

Here’s how the Podloso virus works:

• You install Linux on your iPod.
• You install Podloso onto your Linux iPod.
• You manually launch Podloso.
• It scans for executable .elf files and infects them. Any attempt to launch these files will cause the virus to display a message on the screen which says “You are infected with Oslo the first iPodLinux Virus.”

While the Podloso virus poses a threat to no one, it’s considered to be a proof-of-concept to demonstrate that the platform is vulnerable. So if you run Linux on your iPod and install random junk that you download from the Internet onto it, consider yourself warned.