Content

Viruses now posing on digital picture frames

At least two brands of digital picture frames, a popular gift during the recent holiday season, have been contaminated by malware and one of the brands – Insignia's 10.4-inch frame – has been recalled by the manufacturer and pulled from the shelves of its distributor, Best Buy.

 

According to a warning issued Monday by the SANS Internet Storm Center, some digital frames produced by Advanced Design System and sold at Wal-Mart are infected by a virus.

 

SANS said it has received reports of malware contamination in other digital devices with components that include writable memory, including MP3 players, video cameras and external hard drives.

 

HDTV maker Insignia alerted its customers that some of its 10.4-inch digital picture frames may have been infected with a virus during the manufacturing process. Some of these units were sold through Best Buy, which has pulled the product from its shelves.

 

According to a statement issued by Insignia, “a limited number” of the digital frames in a batch designated model number NS-DPF-10A were contaminated.

 

“This product has been discontinued, and no additional inventory will be sold. Please note that no other Insignia digital picture frame products are affected by this issue,” the company said in a statement.

 

Insignia said the units had been infected with “an older virus” that is “easily identified and removed by current anti-virus software,” and which only infects Windows PCs. According to the company, digital cameras, USB flash drives and memory cards cannot be infected by the virus when connected to or inserted in the digital picture frame.

 

According to a blog posting in the Washington Post, a Best Buy spokesperson said the virus was introduced when the Insignia frames were in production in China.

 

The SANS posting said that five digital photo frames produced by Advanced Design and purchased at Wal-Mart's Sam's Club had been found to contain malware. SANS also said that “several thousand” Insignia frame units had been removed from the shelves of Best Buy.

Get daily email updates

SC Media's daily must-read of the most current and pressing daily news

By clicking the Subscribe button below, you agree to SC Media Terms and Conditions and Privacy Policy.