Insignia Digital Photo Frames Shipped With a Virus

Mon Feb 18, 2008 10:14PM EST

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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.

Comments on Insignia Digital Photo Frames Shipped With a Virus

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  • 66 Posted by bayb-girl@sbcglobal.net on Thu Sep 3, 2009 3:03PM EDT Report Abuse

    Wow...how old are we? Imports being recalled? Chinese invading the USA? I can see where your frustration is coming from but if you had any knowledge of the US economy, you would know that our country is several TRILLIONS of dollars in DEBT and we are actually BORROWING this money from China. For what? For wars in Iraq/Iran and meddling and implanting our own "virus" into other countries rather than improving our own (health care, education, the sufferring economy, etc). Yes, I can see where the frustration toward the Chinese, and other countries, is coming from but it's no reason to be ignorant. The US, right now, is a very "proud" country...and what is there to be proud of? Don't get me wrong, I love what our country was originally intended for (non-centralized government, independance, freedom, etc.) but I just don't see any of that happening right now. We're being "bought out" by XBox 360's, PS3s, HDTVs...and upgrades, and upgrades, and upgrades, and the latest gadgets and gizmos. We're too caught up with having the trendiest things, we forgot what our foundation was built on. =\ That's all I have to say.

  • 68 Posted by phil4bama on Thu Sep 3, 2009 8:09PM EDT Report Abuse

    Beware, we got one of these frames that was apparently infected. It ruined a 2GB memory card from our camera and crashed the Kodak picture machine at our local Walmart when we tried to pull photos off of it.

  • 69 Posted by crystalwhite2000 on Thu Sep 3, 2009 3:31PM EDT Report Abuse

    i think they get paid less than $ 2.00 an hour ohio lost 200,000 factory jobs wonder how many went to mexico and china i won't mind paying more for something if it gave americans job with decent pay. not an hourly wage that won't even cover the basics.

  • 71 Posted by alifan1963 on Thu Sep 3, 2009 2:50PM EDT Report Abuse

    I bought an Insignia HD TV upon recommendation of a salesman at Best Buy and it promptly stopped working. Best Buy sent a repairman who lied and said the power supply had water damage. I had a local TV repairman open the back and he said the only thing that was wrong was that the power supply was burned out. There was absolutely NO WATER DAMAGE. I am ready to put both Best Buy and Insignia in customer heck with a call to the Federal Trade Commission as I have heard numerous stories of Best Buy claiming water damage on all sorts of products from laptops to TVs, which gets them out of their extended warranties. Don't bother with the Better Business Bureau. Go straight to the top at the Federal Government and while you're at it, call 60 Minutes or Dateline NBC and let them do an investigative report. And it appears that Insignia is one of the worst brands on the market. You messed with the wrong person Insignia and Best Buy. Always helps when you have friends in the media and the federal government. Stay tuned everyone. One pi**ed off consumer

  • 72 Posted by trent.dozier on Thu Sep 3, 2009 10:19PM EDT Report Abuse

    That guy is no IT expert if it took 12 hours to rebuild a machine from a piece of malware, he is more like an it retard

  • 73 Posted by amorales33190 on Thu Sep 3, 2009 2:53PM EDT Report Abuse

    Stop buying Toyotas, Hondas, Asian electronics and everything else from the other side of the world?!?!...Are you crazy!...I’m an American. That’s it.

  • 74 Posted by philipg@prodigy.net on Thu Sep 3, 2009 8:09PM EDT Report Abuse

    WOW DUDES, THIS IS SO WEIRD..LIKE IT MAKES YOUR COMPUTER SICK? WHOA! HOPE ITS NOT A FATAL THING...LIKE WOW DUDE. WE SHOULD BAN ALL STUFF WITH VIRUSES ON EM..LIKE I MEAN TOTALLY.

  • 75 Posted by peterd156 on Thu Sep 3, 2009 8:07PM EDT Report Abuse

    response to question 27, It seems to me that you're the lazy one. That information is SO EASY to obtain, it's pathetic. Why must "someone" do that for you?

  • 76 Posted by bdwolfhound on Thu Sep 3, 2009 3:04PM EDT Report Abuse

    I'm surprised we have not yet heard about the lawsuits against the supplier of such dangerous hardware.......

  • 77 Posted by jaclyn_ilr on Thu Sep 3, 2009 4:26PM EDT Report Abuse

    We bought this frame for my parents as a Christmas present because it had better picture quality than any of the others we saw at Best Buy. A lot of the cheaper brands had a bluish tint to everything. Anyway, it's a shame that someone sabbotaged such a good product, because the frame itself had some awesome features and the pictures look really good.

  • 78 Posted by peterd156 on Thu Sep 3, 2009 8:07PM EDT Report Abuse

    More on question 27. Put your pants back on and place that KungFoo grip of yours on REALITY.

  • 79 Posted by freethelizards on Thu Sep 3, 2009 4:03PM EDT Report Abuse

    Insignia is sold exclusively at Best Buy. From my understanding Insignia is actually made by Panasonic or buy Panasonic parts. If that is truely the case then it's not a cheap brand just a different name. Besides I bought one of these frames as a Christmas present for my wife. We received a letter in the mail over a month ago regarding this situation. Why is this a news story now?? The media really needs to get on the ball.

  • 80 Posted by jordanmh2001 on Thu Sep 3, 2009 4:40PM EDT Report Abuse

    This is crap and the guy, doesn't know what he is talking about.Very very poor reporting, unnamed sources all over the place. If you want the real scoop go to http://windowssecrets.com/2008/02/21/05-Now-is-the-time-for-debunking-the-Mocmex-threat You will find out what a NON threat this is

  • 81 Posted by wineguy_red on Thu Sep 3, 2009 10:47PM EDT Report Abuse

    This is toward posting #45, I guess you have never had to do a complete backup on a system with compressed files. Get all the facts before you start casting doubt. There are many things that can complicate a healthy PC, viruses to be the center stage. My whole feelings regarding this problem is there really needs to be a fair international trade exchange system in the U.S. This is only one example of complete open boarder to our country.

  • 82 Posted by robert_hayduk on Thu Sep 3, 2009 8:45PM EDT Report Abuse

    The virus is most likely added by the manufacturing employee responsible for installing the internal RAM memory at the factory where the Insignia frames are assembled, or the virus is mass produced on to the RAM memory chip modules before the parts are shipped to the US for assembly. The Insignia brand is made for Best Buy, mostly in part by LG (Life's Good), so it is possible that the virus is coming from Korea (LG headquarters) on the memory chips, then assembled in the US and sent out to stores for selling without anyone knowing. Why someone does not perform diagnostic testing on the internal RAM memory modules is beyond me. This, I blame in part, on the lazy (mostly union) workers in the US who perform this post shipment assembly work. A decline in workmanship and quality product creates more overseas opportunities for jobs, thus making the American consumer vulnerable to these kinds of problems. Case in point: Toys made in China... What will it take for us to wake up and realize there is a problem here?

  • 83 Posted by smackfly on Thu Sep 3, 2009 9:28PM EDT Report Abuse

    Reminds me of my sister's friend. She bought a cheap tablet (instead of a Wacom like I suggested) and it's software came with the chernobyl virus (which killed a harddrive). I think the company was probably infected with whatever virus and didn't realize and then it got passed on. I couldn't see a company intentionally doing it, it would kill their business o.0

  • 84 Posted by pamcrews on Thu Sep 3, 2009 7:59PM EDT Report Abuse

    We purchase a Kodak frame and when we loaded the "Easy Share" software it crashed our computer. UGH!

  • 85 Posted by fullblastus on Thu Sep 3, 2009 4:04PM EDT Report Abuse

    Linux and MacOS can unwittingly transmit a virus. I mean, the virus doesn't affect Linux, but in the course of your work, you downloaded a .PDF, a .DOC or something normally run on a WIN box. You work all day with code and it works perfectly, Save and upload. A WIN box makes contact with the code you worked on and WHAM! they are infected. This gets so crazy that I have learned to keep a Windows box around just to test for malicious code. I refuse to buy Vista. If a virus is in fact specific to Vista, I have no prevention.

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