Ugh, we were already sick of digital photo frames -- and now it looks those now-discontinued
virus-ridden Insignia units from Best Buy and several other models produced in China were carrying a much nastier trojan that we'd
originally heard. According to an analyst form Computer Associates, the trojan, called Mocmex, is able to block more than 100 types of security and anti-virus software from killing it, and bypasses the Windows firewall to download files from remote locations, spreading them randomly over your hard drive and any portable storage device you plug into your PC -- like, for example, a digital photo frame. The trojan is apparently set to only steal gaming passwords at present, but CA says it's capable of stealing nearly any information on your machine, and thinks it might be a test for a much worse virus yet to come. Infected frames have come from Sam's Club, Target and Costco, in addition to Best Buy, so we'd say to avoid picking one up until this mess gets sorted out -- or, you know, forever.
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 2)
The Angry Intern @ Feb 15th 2008 7:29PM
good thing I have no use for one of these things.
Aguiluz @ Feb 15th 2008 9:31PM
Me too. I prefer old school photo frames since they don't break if dropped.
CUBSWILLWIN @ Feb 15th 2008 7:30PM
oh that best buy!
Andy @ Feb 15th 2008 7:51PM
don't you mean "oh that china?" f china and everyone there. all 432 billion of them. lead painting virus sending mother f'ers!
Dave @ Feb 15th 2008 8:03PM
and this is why i make sure all my shit is from south korea, taiwan, or japan...
Carbonize @ Feb 15th 2008 8:16PM
I suggest you take a look at all the products in your house then given that China is the largest producer of goods for western business.
Dave @ Feb 15th 2008 8:26PM
I meant in regards to electronics, smartass. I'm sure all my furniture is made in China, but then again I dont have to worry about my furniture bypassing Windows Firewalls and disabling my antivirus software, now do I?
Andy @ Feb 15th 2008 8:42PM
rank me low you dumb ass made in china buying idiots. stop being so cheap and look for american made gear, and pay more for it.
CUBSWILLWIN @ Feb 15th 2008 9:12PM
american made gear isn't all that cracked to be...
mark lee @ Feb 15th 2008 9:19PM
I agreed that whenever I have a choice I'd stay away from Made In China products.
But before you write another ignorant comment, you should keep in mind that all Apple products are made in China, and they are often perceived as the least virus-prone computers/electronics.
Best Buy should be responsible for the quality of their products regardless of where it is made.
Aguiluz @ Feb 15th 2008 9:34PM
@Carbonize
>......Made in China.....
Along with my laptop, my Playstation 2, my LCD tv (5"), my PSP, my cellphone, my Wireless Router, my modem, etc. etc...
P.S: Have you noticed the commenting system? Weird... They changed it.
Carbonize @ Feb 15th 2008 9:48PM
@Aguiluz - What do you mean about the commenting system? Not noticed any changes but then my last post was over an hour ago ;)
West Hubbard @ Feb 15th 2008 10:44PM
@mark lee
only other product I can't think Didn't the iPod come with a virus!!!
dont think the zune comes with one ;)
Not tryin to bash apple here, I too think they make some very nice products. Just that the fact that apple stuff is made in china doesn't mean people can't mess with it
oh and before you tell me that the virus on the iPod was for a windows...i know...probably why apple didn't want to warm people.
Aguiluz @ Feb 15th 2008 11:31PM
@ Carbonize:
Sometimes they send me a confirmation email. There is this "please confirm comment..." mail popping in my mailbox. I thought it was a ploy to prevent double-posts or "first!" spams. Plus
Here's a screenshot, see what I meant:
http://img509.imageshack.us/img509/3567/blahhhhhhei5.png
"Aguiluz replied to your comment!" Wow, they have to inform me that I replied to my own comment.
luckycharms711 @ Feb 16th 2008 3:04AM
what about haier they are a pretty good brand
Carbonize @ Feb 16th 2008 12:55AM
You only have to confirm if you only supplied a username and email address. I always use my password so never get them type of emails. I also only get notification of replies if I started the thread.
Either way digital photo frames suck.
tutut @ Feb 16th 2008 1:45PM
@ Dave
and exactly how do you do it dave ? when most of the manufacturing of Taiwan, South Korea and Japan are now outsourced to China. You mind sharing us some tips ? Name some products that has the label "Made in Japan, Made in Taiwan, Made in South Korea" these days.
Yor1001 @ Feb 16th 2008 7:25PM
@ andy.
american made gear are still made in china.
Adam @ Feb 15th 2008 7:30PM
or just get a mac :-)
holycow @ Feb 15th 2008 7:42PM
get a MAC and use it as a photo frame ? no thanks!
Carbonize @ Feb 15th 2008 7:47PM
Yes I'd sooner have something decent to show my photos on.
Adam @ Feb 15th 2008 7:47PM
or get a photoframe, get a mac, and not have the trojan affect yoru mac. duh.
Carbonize @ Feb 15th 2008 8:14PM
Wow and who said there were no stupid Mac owners?
phanbouy @ Feb 15th 2008 8:44PM
ha.. i thought he was mac hatin'. my brain just couldn't process the inanity of that being a literal post.
ethana2 @ Feb 15th 2008 10:47PM
I use Ubuntu Linux, so I can laugh at Windows users /and/ mac users.
Ha. Ha. Ha.
Riley @ Feb 15th 2008 11:55PM
@ ethana2
I use Ubuntu too, but "Ubuntu Linux picture frame" doesn't really roll off the tongue...
Then again, there's not much point to digital picture frames so we shouldn't really have to worry about it
Carbonize @ Feb 16th 2008 12:57AM
I use Windows and Linux and laugh at people who install Ubuntu and think that makes them better than Windows users. There's a big difference between installing an OS and knowing how to use/secure it.
Shane @ Feb 16th 2008 3:28PM
Actually, I have an old 15" 800 mhz G4 "Lampshade" iMac and it makes quite a nice digital photo frame. As a bonus, it could show RSS photo feeds, news and weather if I had it connected to the Internet.
(Yes, I realize this could be done a number of different ways but I happened to have the machine, it looks somewhat stylish and it otherwise would have gone unused--for what it's worth I also have a wall full of good old fashioned analog photos)
DEEZNUTZ @ Feb 15th 2008 7:48PM
Class action lawsuit FTW!
Yubastard @ Feb 15th 2008 8:09PM
I think that'll be so pointless... suing someone from China, yeah right. But it's worth a try! :)
AJ in the East Bay @ Feb 15th 2008 8:11PM
It's fine to blame Best Buy. They should have some quality control. Oh, wait...
CraigJ @ Feb 15th 2008 9:53PM
2112 FTW
Hammond X @ Feb 16th 2008 12:39AM
I think Best Buy has been framed.
Joshua Feinberg @ Feb 15th 2008 8:22PM
I'd resisted getting one of these for years.
Then my parents, frustrated that we weren't developing digital pictures of their granddaughter fast enough, got us one for the holidays.
The first thing I did was buy a 1GB SD card for it, the first time I saw them on sale for $10 at Office Depot (the frame only came with an anemic 128MB of RAM).
It never even got hooked up to any of our PC's. Just the SD card that came out of the digital camera and went into its slot. Now I'm glad we've kept it in digital isolation.
holycow @ Feb 15th 2008 8:30PM
you might wanna run a virus check on the card ;)
ethana2 @ Feb 15th 2008 10:57PM
or make sure you're running linux, osx, or windows vista.
viruses are only possible because of three prime aspects of horrible security policy.. vista is the first microsoft product not to exhibit all of them.
Of course, if you want hardware compatibility, ironically enough, you're looking at linux. And if Google keeps up the awesome work on WINE, it may surpass Vista for software compatibility too ;)
H4MM3R @ Feb 15th 2008 8:28PM
I now know what I will be getting my boss when he retires next month.
r3loaded @ Feb 15th 2008 8:33PM
Gotta love the wooden trojan horse in that pic - do you Engadget guys have too much time on your hands or something?
MEAT! @ Feb 15th 2008 8:39PM
It just "bypasses" Windows Firewall? Makes it sound so easy.
When will ZoneAlarm come out for 64-bit XP?
Derek @ Feb 15th 2008 9:08PM
Makes it sound easy? It is easy.
ethana2 @ Feb 15th 2008 10:50PM
You know you're doing something wrong when you even need a firewall.
..well, maybe i have one and just don't know it.
Guys, does Ubuntu come with a firewall?
Riley @ Feb 15th 2008 11:55PM
@ ethana2
Yes, Ubuntu comes with iptables (you just don't know it). You can use Firestarter if you want a GUI for it
Wildness @ Feb 15th 2008 8:57PM
I could live with poison in my pet's food...I could live with lead in children's toys...I could even live with poison in MY food...but, this is just too far! This is the last straw! I will not buy anymore junk from China...
Oh wait...I decided not to buy Chinese cr*p long before we knew they were poisoning us, our pets, and our computers.
tutut @ Feb 16th 2008 1:45PM
oh no look at your MP3 player and turn over and read the label of the keyboard you'r typing on right now
Wildness @ Feb 16th 2008 1:48PM
Exactly my point...We have let China become our supplier and we are now paying for it many different ways.
tutut @ Feb 16th 2008 1:53PM
You know when you say u don't have any "made in China" in your home, you know that you are lying to yourself and to us also.
Wildness @ Feb 16th 2008 2:09PM
Yes, in the last few years, it has become impossible to not buy somethings made in China including my iPod or my computer hardware (which is sad as none of it lasts as long as it did just six or seven years ago). But, that said, I do avoid it as much as possible; given a choice, I will always buy the option not made in China and often I will go without when it is the only option.
The bottom line is that while I have spent the last 10+ years avoiding Chinese cr*p and trying to convince everyone else to do the same, most haven't and now we are all paying the price. My apparently too subtle point in my original post (where I DO NOT claim to own nothing made in China) was to point out that the populace as a whole saw nothing wrong with our stuff being made more and more in China (I debating many a person who thought I was nuts for worrying about it) and that now we are all paying for it (at least those who are willing to eat food made in China or see the need to buy an overpriced picture frame, etc.).
In the end blame, Wal-Mart because they started the trend and pushed their suppliers to go there or loose the business (a trap, I believe, originally set by China). To this day, I avoid buying from China when Possible and everyone should do the same. More so, I am vocal about it to store owners, and if we all were to stand up and say no more, we could start fix this problem. Otherwise, we will just sit here and take until China collapses under the weight of themselves or we collapse because we have no real jobs that can afford all of the Chinese cr*p.
tutut @ Feb 17th 2008 8:14AM
Please excuse me on this matter, as far as i know China did not mass produce anything for the USA back 10 + years ago, only recently stuff are made in China become so prevalent I believe. I don't really agree with what you said, when stuff were made in Taiwan and Korea, it was made fun and joked about in America, and people would say the same thing you're saying right now. I mean if you look at the quality control of each company then you'll see, it is not the label of "made in China" , ask yourself why does a Sony Vaio last much longer than a crappy Dell although both are made in China ? heck don't even need to use Sony Vaio, just take HP for example, it lasts way longer than Dell and yet both are made in China.
Wildness @ Feb 17th 2008 10:48AM
Yes, ten years ago stuff was beginning to be made in China - not much of the electronics yet, but the trend had started; and ten years ago was about when Wal-Mart opened their office there.
As for quality...yes, the company can control the quality to some extent, thus why my Mac is superior to the Dell OR the Sony Vaio (I had two $3000 Sony Vaio laptops, both of which were dead, dead, dead within two years). BUT, all of these companies that have screwed lately with tainted food or lead paint or bad dog food all BELIEVED they had good quality control over there and it wasn't enough.
Also, Taiwan has been a tech hotbed for years and Korea has just recently gone from being the place the cr*p was made to a place with better quality control (though still far behind the Japanese). Thailand is another place with better quality control than China. But, in the end, none of these countries possess one other "quality" that dictates that we should avoid Chinese stuff...none of them are our enemy, which in some ways China is. By buying Chinese, we are helping the most over-populated country with a poor human rights record continue their ways; and this is likely to lead to confrontation at some point.
Galley @ Feb 15th 2008 8:58PM
I've got a 32" LCD photo frame (Apple TV).