Insignia Digital Photo Frames Shipped With a Virus
Mon Feb 18, 2008 10:14PM EST


A frightening new computer virus is making the rounds, and it's coming
in through an unlikely source: Those cute, innocuous, and unavoidable
digital picture frames.

SFGate has the story of a nasty piece of malware that has been riding
along with Insignia brand photo frames, which were largely sold in
Best Buy and Sam's Club stores (and possibly other outlets) over the
holidays. The virus, which I've yet to find an actual name for, is
reportedly "easy to clean," according to Insignia, but at least one IT
expert (who was running antivirus software) tells a horror story about
it, saying it took him 12 hours to rebuild his own, infected machine.
All from simply plugging the frame into his PC.

This is hardly the first time that a technology product has shipped
with a virus infection. Apple made headlines in 2006 for shipping a
Windows virus on numerous video iPods. In recent years, products from
Creative Labs, TomTom, Seagate, and even a cheap McDonald's gadget
have come from the factory bearing unwanted gifts.

But infected photo frames represent an even trickier scenario since
many of the people using them are likely to be computer novices as
opposed to, say, those plugging in a high-end GPS.

Worried about your own new frame? The good news is that the damage
appears limited to Insignia frames and only the 10.4-inch model (model
number NS-DPF-10A). If you're sitting on one of these that you haven't
yet plugged in, don't connect it to your computer; call Insignia at
877-467-4289 for instructions on what to do. If you have a different
model frame, you should be OK for now.

http://tech.yahoo.com/blog/null/66647