Another pair of infected digiframes promise to ruin the rest of your holiday break

Oh, geez. Not this again. Just months after everyone involved with that virus-ridden Insignia frame finally cleaned things up, here comes two new reports that select frames could indeed be shipping from the factory with malware pre-installed. For starters, the 1.5-inch Mercury Digital Photo Keychain -- which is sold at Walmart and other fine retailers -- seems to have some pretty nasty software loaded on, and Amazon has went so far as to issue an alert that some Samsung SPF-85H frames are leaving the dock with the 32.Sality.AE worm on the installation disc. Something tells us someone in quality control couldn't quite get in the holiday spirit.

[Via Slashdot]

[BlurMagic @ Dec 29th 2008 4:07PM]

"sold at Wal Mart and other fine retailers..."

Well, this would explain why I don't buy cheap looking shit. Annnnd this also would explain why I don't buy trinkets. And this also would explain why I don't buy electronics at Wal Mart.

Oh well. That's what you get Cheapskates!!!

[Electromodo @ Dec 29th 2008 4:17PM]

If you follow the links in TFA to Insignia incident, you will see that virus-laden digital frames were also sold in BestBuy and other retail stores. Even Amazon sends out digital frames with viruses.

So this issue is nothing to do with Walmart in particular (and yes, Walmart sells cheap shit).

[BlurMagic @ Dec 29th 2008 4:23PM]

Yeah. I didn't really care about it. If I wanna show off pics all just put them on my G1. I just wanted to show my pure hatred for the the Wal Mart electronics department. I cried the night my parents came home with a 32" Polaroid LCD they paid $600 for. That tv is cheap shit. And it came from Wal Mart.

[Electromodo @ Dec 29th 2008 4:34PM]

I definitely agree with you here. ^

[Lowest Ranked @ Dec 29th 2008 6:02PM]

Amen.

[Oleg Prosalov @ Dec 29th 2008 4:07PM]

It's been like a week since I've seen a highest ranked comment. WTF is going on???




P.S. Rank this up to see if it still works...

[Chase @ Dec 29th 2008 4:31PM]

How about we just all see if the lowest ranked works and low rank you.

[Oleg Prosalov @ Dec 29th 2008 4:37PM]

We can just that to yours to try both ;)

[fistpittingnork @ Dec 29th 2008 4:44PM]

Your comment will soon be clear as crystal.

You'll never be forgotten.

RIP

[KezMondo @ Dec 29th 2008 7:06PM]

It appears he's right. I checked back on a few comments I made that were highest rank and they're all just 'highly ranked' or 'Neutral'. Something fishy is going on...

[Boarderwoot @ Dec 29th 2008 4:09PM]

Something tells me that the people buying these things wouldn't even notice or figure out what to do about it anyways, especially Bubba who has been parked in the walmart lot since july.

[Tankyu @ Dec 29th 2008 4:09PM]

Nice subtle photoshop edit, almost didn't catch it.

[Nick Eddy @ Dec 29th 2008 4:11PM]

Erm... most of these are false positives. Crappy AV software picks up the EXE/PE packers and just assumes it's a virus instead of unpacking them and then scanning...

So again, these are just false positives...

[n_shakuras @ Dec 29th 2008 7:56PM]

Please present your credentials as an IT professional before you make another unsupported bullshit claim like that.

[Bill Jobs @ Dec 29th 2008 4:16PM]

How does this happen? I just don't get it.

[Arkenklo @ Dec 29th 2008 4:26PM]

A worm/virus get info the computer that controlls the software that goes on the cd, it's not like they put it on the cd delibiratly.

[BJ is Gooder @ Dec 29th 2008 4:28PM]

One explanation I've heard is that people doing the testing of the final product in manufacturing may have brought personal files onto the testing computers -- music, videos, whatever. When the product is tested on these, the product is infected and then shipped to consumers.

OR

Someone could be doing it on purpose...

[Chase @ Dec 29th 2008 4:29PM]

This is why you buy American...
Also, over 44.8% of Malware is from China
http://webhosting.devshed.com/c/a/Web-Hosting-News/Hosted-in-China-Malware-Infested-Web-Sites/

More on the infected photo frames:
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2008/02/15/BU47V0VOH.DTL&type=business

[technician @ Dec 29th 2008 6:42PM]

And Polaroid is American and it is cheap shit as someone mentioned up there.

[Valicore @ Dec 29th 2008 9:06PM]

Buy American what? Is there a single company in the US that makes digital frames that are designed, built, shipped, and sold in the US only?

[la @ Dec 29th 2008 4:39PM]

Amazon either " went so far" or "has gone so far" Not " has went so far."

edit edit edit.

[Camperton @ Dec 29th 2008 5:24PM]

http://stuffwhitepeoplelike.com/2008/05/12/99-grammar/

[Lowest Ranked @ Dec 29th 2008 6:08PM]

The usage is correct, but it also depends on whether you consider Amazon as a company (singular entity) or or all group of online retailers.

[giuliop @ Dec 29th 2008 6:22PM]

Something tells me someone in quality control at Engadget couldn't quite get in the holiday spirit. Or in the rest-of-the-year spirit, for that matter.

[fistpittingnork @ Dec 29th 2008 4:47PM]

Blue lines on a pregnancy test can be false positives.

Virii attacking those who want to show off pictures of their ugly ass kids, grandkids, and/or stupid cats are very real and very serious.

[fistpittingnork @ Dec 29th 2008 4:48PM]

Go go Engadget commenting system!

That was in response to Nick Eddy.

[Bryan @ Dec 29th 2008 5:08PM]

When did Walmart become a 'fine' retailer?

[Lowest Ranked @ Dec 29th 2008 6:06PM]

When sarcasm was invented.


Yes, Walmart has been around for thousands of years.

[SOOPERGOOMAN @ Dec 29th 2008 7:47PM]

Buy something like "that" as a gift and you deserve to have a virus on it. STALE!

[Toni Borgetto @ Dec 30th 2008 4:29AM]

Why on Earth would this need to be running Windows? Nobody's gonna run MS Office or any Windows-only games on a digiframe.

Maybe I missed something, but for simply displaying some pictures (or videos, or playing music) any Linux distribution would be fine. Cheaper, and no problem with stupid Windows viruses.

[Choda Boy @ Dec 30th 2008 4:42AM]

It is NEVER correct to combine "has" and "went"! There do not seem to be ANY editors or editorial standards online. There are too (notice the two "o"s) many morons graduating from the failed United States public education system. Our future is doomed...