Picture This….with a Free Virus!

From Slashdot comes the painfully unsurprising news about digital picture frames. The software installation CD comes with a virus, W32.Sality.AE worm.

WalMart and Amazon sold these items during the Christmas season this year. Although Mercury and Samsung are the brands listed, all digital frames have left my Christmas list.

A little further digging reveals a Trojan product affecting a wide variety of digital frames that has been attached to numerous software installation products made in China. Given that 2.26 million digital frames were sold in 2007, according to the Consumer Electronics Association, and it expected sales to grow to 3.26 million in 2008, this issue really ought to be getting a lot more press.

The Trojan recognizes over 100 different brands of anti-virus software. I’d be reformatting my disk right about now, because it is very hard to locate and remove.

This was a known issue in February of 2008 - why didn’t Amazon and Walmart vet the software with the frames before selling them this Christmas?